IDAHO SPRINGS - In the interest of an attractive backside, this town wants to oust spangled billboards, jumbo signs and billowing plastic displays facing Interstate 70.

"We want to eliminate the Disney effect," said Mary Jane Loevlie, a member of the town's Historic Preservation Review Commission.

"Idaho Springs needs to be good-looking from I-70. It needs to be its own billboard," said Loevlie, who helped draft the sign code that went into effect March 1.

Millions of motorists a year pass the bevy of signs erected to entice mountain-goers into the former Victorian-era mining town.

In the 3 1/2-block National Historic District, the code would curtail neon, towering carved bears and other signage.

"A lot of people drive through here, and if they don't see something interesting, they don't stop," said David Armstrong, owner of the Giggling Grizzly.

Armstrong has four carved bears ranging from 4 feet to 7 feet tall outside his gift shop on Miner Street. He also has a 9-foot moose.

The new code limits Armstrong to two wooden wildlife figures. Armstrong will seek a variance at a hearing on Thursday.

"People take more pictures with the moose than anything else in Idaho Springs," he said. "They draw interest and bring people into the store."

The carvings have been outside the store for a dozen years, but the code offers no grandfather clause.

It also bans the 28-foot by 14- foot billboard - with the sparkling, metallic spangles - that advertises Indian Springs Resort.

"I think my sign is good for the city because it draws people off the highway," said owner Jim Maxwell. The billboard, which faces I-70, isn't in the historic district; neither is the hot springs resort.

The route to the springs turns and twists, and customers couldn't find him without the signs, said Maxwell, who also is seeking a variance.

Mayor Dennis Lunbery said Idaho Springs, where a major gold deposit was first discovered in Colorado, wants to attract new residents and development, but has an image problem.

"We show our backside to I-70. All that people see from I-70 is the trailers at the west end of town," he said. "We need those people in SUVs to be attracted."

Lunbery and Loevlie said thenew code is permissive compared with those in other National Historic Districts, including nearby Georgetown.

At the Buffalo Restaurant and Bar in Idaho Springs' historic district, manager Dan Elbert said he has to cut back on outdoor signs, interior neon signs visible from the street, hanging window displays and a billboard facing I-70.

"We're trying to survive," said Elbert, referring to the weekend gridlock on I-70 that has convinced skiers and hikers to eat in Summit County, not Idaho Springs, on the way home.

Worst of all, he said, the code forbids the stuffed, full-size buffalo in the dining room. He, too, will seek a variance. "How far inside a business does the city get to come?" he said.

frazierd@RockyMountainNews.com