OREGON, Ill. (WTVO) — More and more murals have been popping up all over the stateline, hoping to brighten up the area and make it more lively. However, one mural in Oregon, Illinois, has sparked a bit of controversy.

Cigar lounge owners in Downtown Oregon are hoping for approval on their mural, which the City said is an advertisement sign that does not follow city requirements.

“Just seeing some of the other small murals that are in town here and thought what a great idea,” said Brian Wynn, co-owner of ‘Bad Ash Cigars.’

“Bad Ash Cigars” recently added a mural to the front of their building. While Wynn and the City have been communicating, there was a bit of a misunderstanding. That has led the cigar lounge to look for an okay on the artwork.

“The issue in contention is, is that a beautiful mural when on the front of the building, it included what we believe is an element of advertising, which is the cigar at the bottom corner of it, and so with that, that creates an entire advertising piece of advertising,” said Oregon City Manager Darin DeHaan. “So, it’s a sign, and so that’s what needs to be varied tonight under ordinance.”

The City of Oregon limits advertising signs to 50 square feet. With the cigar being place on the mural, even though it is within the 50 square feet limit, the entire mural must now fall into those guidelines.

Oregon follows the generally accepted definition of what an advertisement sign is: “Any word, letter, model, sign, pattern, placard, board, notice, device, or representation employed wholly or partly for the purposes of advertisement.”

“We had seen the original kind of design of the mural and had kind of talked him through the process as it was presented to us very early on,” DeHaan said. “So, it wasn’t really a surprise, but I think maybe a little bit of miscommunication of whether or not the cigar should have been included into the mural, which we had kind of communicated to them during the process.”

“You know, we’ve got some clarity and they’ve been great to work with in helping us move forward with this. And as of tonight, you know, the planning committee approved it,” Wynn added. “So, we’ll hopefully be getting our variance taken care of here really soon.”

The committee recommended that the variance be passed Tuesday night. It will come back up at next Tuesday’s city council meeting for a final decision.