03-06-2023 Council Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION APPROVED 1 LINO LAKES CITY COUNCIL 2 WORK SESSION 3 MINUTES 4 5 DATE : March 6,2023 6 TIME STARTED : 6:00 p.m. 7 TIME ENDED : 9:26 p.m. 8 MEMBERS PRESENT : Councilmember Stoesz, Lyden, Cavegn, Mayor 9 Rafferty 1 o MEMBERS ABSENT : Councilmember Ruhland 11 Staff members present: City Planner Katie Larsen; City Clerk/Finance Director Hannah Lynch; 12 Community Development Director Michael Grochala; Director of Public Safety John Swenson; 13 Public Services Director Rick DeGardner; Attorney Kristen Nierengarten of Rupp, Anderson, 14 Squires, Waldspurger, & Mace; Environmental Coordinator Andy Nelson; Activity Center 15 Manager, Lisa Lamey. 16 Item 1 —Sign Ordinance Amendment—Attorney Nierengarten gave an overview of revisions 17 proposed to the sign ordinance noting the City is addresseing a Supreme Court case that one 18 cannot regulate signs based on their content. She spoke about stripping out regulation, cleaning 19 up the ordinance, language consistencies, and what can and cannot be regulated regardings signs. 20 Mayor Rafferty asked if the City can have an ordinacne prohibiting billboards. Attorney 21 Nierengarten replied in the affirmative, the City can prohibit billboards due to safety and 22 aesthetics. 23 Mayor Rafferty asked what aesthetics might mean. Attorney Niergarten replied it could mean 24 that signs must be under a certain height, or regulations regarding the base of the sign. 25 Councilmember Lyden thinks it could be a little dicey in a legal sense as to who determines what 26 is aesthetically pleasing or not. Attorney Nierengarten noted this ordinance does not get that deep 27 and noted safety and aesthetics being the main drivers. 28 Councilmember Stoesz asked if Home Owners Associations (HOAs) have additional restrictions 29 on freedom of speech signs. Attorney Nierengarten replied that HOAs are self-governing and 30 can implement bylaws and that is within their association. As a private entity they are not subject 31 to the First Amendment and could say political signs are not allowed. Councilmember Stoesz 32 asked about signs inside commercial entities. Attorney Nierengarten replied the ordinance is 33 attempting to regulate signs that are reasonably viewable from off the property. Councilmember 34 Steosz asked if the State has sign regulations. Attorney Nierengarten noted the State has some 35 regulations that apply along highways, however on the whole, the State leaves sign regulation to 36 municipalities. 37 Mayor Rafferty asked what the City needs to be concerned about at the highest level? 38 Attorney Nierengarten shared about signs in election years where regulations are lifted regarding 39 the number of signs and the size of signs. She also noted signs are never allowed in the public 1