07-12-07 Planning Comm. Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUT)CS PLANNING COMMISSION JULY 12, 2007 issue of dynamic signage and electronic billboards became more widespread. A couple of cities and the League of Minnesota Cities joined forces to conduct a study on this signage. Knudsen reported that he has looked at a couple of web sites on this issue, and noted that there is a lot of Federal signage regulation. He asked how that fits in with State and Local regulations. The City Planner replied that the Federal regulations came out of the 1960's, and regulated the number of billboards that could exist within a stretch of highway mile. The Planner indicated that the Federal regulations do not pre-empt local regulations, and also noted that Minnesota does not have much state regulation of billboards. The Planner suggested that the Commission begin with a review of the ten points he raised in his July 6°i report beginning on page 1. The Planner noted that points 1, 2, and 3 are general in nature. Duray asked if the new regulations would impact existing signage. The City Planner indicated that it could change the status of a legally conforming sign to legally non-conforming. He noted that if a change is proposed to a legally non-conforming sign, it would have to be brought into conformance with the ordinance. The Planner reviewed point 4 which recommends a minimum letter size of 10 inches. He noted that the Minnetonka ordinance has a scaled size based on speed of the adjoining roadway. The Planner noted that roadway speeds can change over time, which makes this standard problematic. The Planner felt it was cleaner to set a standard minimum letter size. Knudsen agreed that this provision should be kept simple. Duray asked if the maximum letter size should be regulated. The Planner indicated that one of the code requirements is that the entire message must be displayed on the sign. This works to manage maximum letter size. Point 5 requires that the message changes be instantaneous, rather than animated. The Planner noted that the Minnetonka study noted that animated changes are responsible for a great amount of driver distraction while not increasing the knowledge of the message. Knudsen felt that the dynamic signage technology was preferable and more attractive than the printed billboard. Knudsen felt that changing this signage more frequently than the once every 24 hours proposed would not be a safety hazard to drivers. He agreed that message changes should be instantaneous. Pechmann agreed. Duray asked if the current City standard was 24 hours. The City Planner replied that the current ordinance does not have a standard for message changes. Staffls interpretation has been 24 hours given the requirement of static messages. -6-