Chapter 37

A major international hotel chain had purchased an oceanfront resort and spent the last year renovating it to become part of their flagship hotel brand. With most of the interior work completed, the new signage was contracted through Coastline Multimedia, which included his company obtaining approval for the signage from the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board. This quasi-judicial board reviewed all requests for exterior signs throughout the city and approved or disapproved of these requests based upon guidelines that were often ambiguous and arbitrary.

When his project manager had brought the design plans for the new DOtel sign before the CAB, the volunteer board members had taken issue with the style and color, ignoring the fact that these were the hotel's internationally recognized brand identifiers. The project manager attempted to explain that requesting the changes that the CAB wanted would be similar to requiring McDonald's to make the arches for their Myrtle Beach location