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Councilman proposes parishwide sign and landscaping standards for commercial development
Summary
Councilman Ricky Goff presented initial guidelines for a proposed sign and landscaping ordinance aimed at achieving visual uniformity in commercial areas, citing Walker’s monument signs and landscaping grants as a model; councilmembers recorded support but requested further refinement and staff drafting.
Councilman Ricky Goff presented draft guidelines for a parishwide sign and landscaping ordinance, saying he wants greater uniformity for commercial signage and landscaped frontage without impeding business operations. The council agreed to let staff and the parish’s planning group refine the proposal and return a draft ordinance for review.
"I love what they're doing in Walker," Councilman Ricky Goff said, referencing monument signs and landscaping there as an example he hopes to adapt across Livingston Parish. Goff said the proposal would not change existing signs but would guide new commercial development to include signage with some height flexibility and basic landscaping features.
Goff said the Walker examples included both monument-style signs and landscaping projects that received grants; he suggested simple, lower-cost plantings — for example, crepe myrtles placed in curb cutouts — to avoid requiring large or expensive installations. He told the council he is not trying to “make it difficult to do business in the parish.”
Council members asked how enforcement would work. Staff and council members said any new rules would be implemented through the site-plan and permitting process and would likely require applicants to include landscaping on submitted plans; the discussion noted that enforcement would create workload for compliance staff but that the intent was to encourage landscaping at the design stage rather than impose immediate fines. “We’re not trying to get out there and charge extra penalties or extra fees,” one speaker said, adding the ordnance would provide guidelines for plans brought in for approval.
Council members also raised related topics for staff to consider: whether billboard spacing should be regulated (Goff said he would study a 750–1,000-foot separation as a possible standard), whether the parish should allow certain disguised cell towers (speakers noted some towers resemble trees), and whether sites like DEMCO should be required to include screening where feasible. Goff said the committee will continue to refine the language and plans and return a formal draft for council consideration.
No public commenters offered substantive revisions during the discussion; council staff will incorporate feedback from the planning/artist committee and bring a draft ordinance back to the council in a future meeting.
