A small kiosk-mounted video screen that displays real estate for sale by Thomas & Talbot apparently violates the letter, if not the spirit, of Town's current regulations governing signage in Middleburg's Historic District. The rules ban "internally lighted" signs, and were designed to protect the Town's business district from flashing neon and other brightly lit signage that, it was believed, would damage downtown's look and feel.

Both the Town Zoning Administrator and Town Council agree that the display, at Thomas & Talbot's South Madison Street headquarters was discreet, unobtrusive, and, technically, illegal. Council also agreed that the Town's sign regulations needed to be reviewed, reconsidered, and, perhaps changed to accommodate 21st century technology.

Town Planner David Beniamino pointed out that, if one were to apply the letter of the law to all the town's existing signage, the lighted bank logos on outdoor ATM's could be considered, technically, "illegal."

An town order requiring the removal of the offending signage, however, remains unlikely. Council tabled further discussion of the matter, pending a thorough review of how best to accommodate signs similar to the Thomas and Talbot kiosk, without creating the impression that it had given in to pressure or, worse, inadvertently opening a legal path to neon and other historically inappropriate forms of lighted signage Middleburg's advisory Historic District Review Committee, a key player in any effort to resolve, the problem, has traditionally opposed allowing "internally lighted signs" of any kind.