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Intercounty Connector officials said Tuesday night they will reduce the size of proposed signs announcing the highway by about 35 percent following community opposition to the larger signs.

Members of the Greater Olney Civic Association were shocked when Odessa Phillip, ICC community outreach director, showed photos at GOCA's November meeting of two large electronic message signs that would span northbound lanes of Georgia Avenue near Leisure World and southbound lanes of Georgia Avenue near Silo Inn Drive in Olney, where the first segment of the ICC will open next year.

GOCA members said the signs were not in keeping with the character of the community.

"This was the result of the community bringing to our attention the overall character of Olney, and that led to us taking another look, not just for Olney, for the other areas as well," ICC spokeswoman Fran Counihan said of the changes.

She said the State Highway Administration has revised the signs that will be used throughout the project, which stretches from Gaithersburg to Laurel, except for those on Interstate 95 and Route 29.

Phillips had told GOCA members that the large signs were necessary to notify motorists of road conditions and toll rates as they travel along Georgia Avenue, and that the size of the signs was dictated by federal requirements.

In addition to those signs, 19 additional signs were planned, some smaller, but others as large as 12 feet by 16 feet, she said.

GOCA passed a resolution to oppose the two largest signs and enlisted the assistance of elected officials, including Del. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Dist. 19) of Derwood.

Kramer said state representatives in districts 14 and 19 reviewed the proposals with the State Highway Administration and the Maryland Transit Authority.

"Neighborhoods should not be subjected to the signage seen on major interstates," he said. "It was the way it had always been done, but they came back with a radically changed proposal, and that says a lot."

The large message signs have been reduced from 10 feet by 36 feet to 8 feet by 19 feet, and instead of spanning the roadway, they will be mounted in the median.

Other signs have been reduced by about one-third the original size.

With the smaller signs come other changes. Since most of the signs will be mounted on breakaway posts, the need for guardrails brought on by the larger signs has been eliminated. Flashing beacons have been removed and signs that were originally designed to be blue will now be green, ICC officials told members of GOCA this week.

Counihan said the smaller signs still reflect industry standards for safety.

GOCA President Sharon Dooley called the change "a very big plus for Olney."

"The community is very happy that we were listened to and that our concerns were taken into consideration," she said. "We feel that the changes made are in the best interest of all involved.

"We appreciate the fact that our elected officials, state highway officials and community members worked together in such a way that the problem was resolved within a month," she added.

GOCA is on record as opposing the ICC, an 18-mile toll road that will eventually span the eastern half of Montgomery County at a cost of $2.6 billion. The first segment will stretch from Interstate 370 in Gaithersburg to Georgia Avenue in Olney.