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County law regulates the size, location, height and construction of outdoor signs. It also regulates how frequently the messages can change on signs that flash messages.

Since 1975 the county has regulated the number of messages that can be flashed on a sign to one per day, except for those that display the date, time and temperature. The limit was put into effect because the county views the frequently changing messages as possible hazards as motorists take their eyes of the road to read them.

School signs are exempt from the law because schools are built on state land. Federal, state and county-owned land is exempt from the statute. Fire stations are not if they own the land on which they sit.

The sign at White Flint mall on Rockville Pike was already in place when the law was enacted, so it was allowed to stay.

Doug Noble, a volunteer firefighter at the Damascus Volunteer Fire Department, stumbled across the law when he was looking into replacing the old sign in front of the station on Ridge Road. The sign has become water logged and does not hold the letters anymore, he said.

The department would like to install an electronic sign and be able to change to messages to alert the community to upcoming events or traffic situations, he said.

"Most counties around us don't have that restriction," Noble said.

The County Council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee held a hearing Thursday about making an exemption to the law for fire departments. Noble spoke for the Damascus department at the hearing.

One problem with that change is that the law does not distinguish its exceptions by the organization controlling the sign, but by who owns the land. The volunteer department owns the land.

"It's not clear how we could carve up permission for fire departments versus anything else," Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, chairman of the committee, said after the hearing.

Council staff researched the safety aspects of variable-message signs.

"The Division of Traffic Engineering and Operations believes that increasing the number of variable-message signs will not enhance traffic safety and could increase crashes," staff legislative attorney Jeff Zyontz wrote in a report released Thursday.

Signs that are static become part of the landscape; variable-message signs command attention with each new message, he wrote.

"Any attraction to a changing message is a distraction to the driver of a vehicle," Zyontz wrote.

He cited studies showing that 23 percent of crashes or near-crashes in metropolitan areas are caused by drivers taking their eyes off the road for no more than two seconds. Some 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes are caused by drivers looking away for up to three seconds, according to the report.

Zyontz added that two studies released in 2007 by the advertising industry found no safety problems caused by variable-message signs, but a Maryland State Highway Administration review of the research did not find the conclusions of the study were supported by the evidence.

The Federal Highway Administration concluded in February that current knowledge is inconclusive and called for further research.

The committee did not make any decisions about changing the law.

"It's not clear what the next step will be," Knapp said. "We're going to look into it."

The county Department of Permitting Services enforces the sign law when it receives complaints, Zyontz said. It does not have inspectors roving the county looking for infractions, he said.

Noble expected the Damascus Volunteer Fire Department would order the new sign, whether or not it can change the message throughout the day.

Damascus fire department President Thomas Gartner declined to answer questions about the need for the sign or the cost of a new one.