Laserfiche WebLink
1 <br />CITY COUNCIL <br />AGENDA ITEM 6A <br />STAFF ORIGINATOR: Katie Larsen, City Planner <br />MEETING DATE: March 27, 2023 <br />TOPIC: City Code Chapter 1010: Signs <br />i.Consider 2nd Reading of Ordinance No. 01-23 Sign Ordinance <br />Amendment <br />*Council may vote to dispense with full reading of ordinance <br />* Roll call vote is required for adoption of the ordinance <br />ii.Consider Resolution No. 23-21 Authorizing Summary <br />Publication <br />INTRODUCTION <br />City Code Chapter 1010: Signs regulates signs. In 2014, the City amended the sign ordinance. <br />Staff is proposing another amendment to the ordinance to reflect changes that have transpired <br />from a federal court case. The City Council approved the 1st reading of the ordinance at the <br />March 13, 2023 Council meeting. <br />BACKGROUND <br />The main purpose of the revisions to the City’s sign ordinance is to bring the ordinance in line <br />the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which determined that content- <br />based regulation of signs are generally impermissible and could violate the First Amendment. In <br />short, the court said that government can’t regulate signs based on the communicative intent or <br />message of those signs. The courts have signaled, however, that concerns for safety can justify <br />content-based sign regulations and that distinctions can be drawn for on-premise versus off- <br />premise signs and commercial versus non-commercial signs. The sign ordinance revisions reflect <br />this evolution in case law. <br />A secondary goal of revising the sign ordinance is to increase its clarity and readability to ease <br />administration and enforcement. This includes cutting down on unused definitions, standardizing <br />language, and addressing potential conflicts or unnecessary language. <br />For the most part, the revisions are geared toward maintaining the City’s original intent in its <br />sign regulation, while eliminating disallowed content-based regulations. As recommended by the <br />Planning & Zoning Board, obscene sign language has been added under Section 1010.005 <br />Prohibited Signs. As discussed at the March 6, 2023 Work Session, dynamic sign size was <br />increased from 20sf to 32sf with an 8 second hold.