Loxahatchee Groves committee begins overhaul of sign code, pushes structural approach over content rules

At a meeting of the Unified Land Development Code Review Committee of the Town of Loxahatchee Groves, staff presented attorney drafts and a photo packet and asked the committee to focus first on sign rules in Ag-Residential (AR) areas rather than commercial corridors.

The committee heard that town attorneys provided two draft approaches: a June marked-up amendment that edits the existing code, and an April draft that would repeal the prior text and introduce a new code. Project coordinator Jeff Kirch said the goal is to move away from content-based regulations — which are vulnerable to legal challenge — toward structural definitions such as “freestanding sign,” “window sign” and “wall sign.” Kirch said, “We’re gonna get away from a content based sign code to a structurally based sign code.” Community Standards Director Karen Gardner Young added that sign regulation is legally sensitive: “Signs are very legal. If somebody’s gonna sue, then chances are this is a good place they’re gonna sue.”

Why it matters: changes could make long-standing signs nonconforming,…