02/08/2023 P & Z Combined Packet

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1 PLANNING & ZONING BOARD AGENDA ITEM 6A STAFF ORIGINATOR: Katie Larsen, City Planner P & Z MEETING DATE: February 8, 2023 REQUEST: PUBLIC HEARING: Sign Ordinance Amendment CASE NUMBER: N/A APPLICANTS: City of Lino Lakes OWNERS: Multiple BACKGROUND City Code Chapter 1010: Signs regulates signs. In 2014, the City amended the sign ordinance. Staff is proposing another amendment to the ordinance to reflect changes that have transpired from a federal court case. Kristin Nierengarten, attorney with Rupp, Anderson, Squires, Waldspurger, & Mace, will present the sign ordinance amendment. ANALYSIS The main purpose of the revisions to the City’s sign ordinance is to bring the ordinance in line the U.S. Supreme Court decisio n in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which determined that content- based regulation of signs are generally impermissible and could violate the First Amendment. In short, the court said that government can’t regulate signs based on the communicative intent or message of those signs. The courts have signaled, however, that concerns for safety can justify content -based sign regulations and that distinctions can be drawn for on-premise versus off- premise signs and commercial versus non-commercial signs. The sign ordinance revisions reflect this evolution in case law. A secondary goal of revising the sign ordinance is to increase its clarity and readability to ease administration and enforcement. This includes cutting down on unused definitions, standardizing language, and addressing potential conflicts or unnecessary language. For the most part, the revisions are geared toward maintaining the City’s original intent in its sign regulation, while eliminating disallowed content-based regulations. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends approval of the proposed sign ordinance amendment with input from the public and Planning & Zoning Board.