Cedar City planning commission recommends changes to historic downtown sign rules

Cedar City Planning Commission recommended approval Thursday of an ordinance text amendment that would revise sign regulations in the city's historic downtown, including allowing halo signs and rehabilitated “ghost signs,” prohibiting most internally illuminated channel-letter and raceway signs, and reducing the maximum monument sign height in the district.

The recommendation follows a review by the Downtown Historic Economic Committee and a staff presentation explaining proposed changes to definitions and lighting rules. Brent Drew, chairman of the Downtown Historic Committee, told the commission the committee supports the updates and said the changes “allow 1 more type of sign . . . [that is] more affordable and gives the people more options.”

Planning staff member Don Boudreau described the specific edits in a slide presentation. “The first proposal was to strike number 10 here, which essentially is a prohibition against internal illumination of signs,” Boudreau said, adding that the revisions add definitions for halo signs, ghost signs, channel letters, raceway signs and box/cabinet signs and would tighten or relax certain size and material requirements depending on sign type.

Under the draft amendment, halo signs — three-dimensional routed letters that cast light onto the building behind them — would be allowed in the historic district. The draft also creates a definition and a process to review “ghost signs,” older painted wall signs that could be rehabilitated with a recommendation from the Downtown Historic Committee. By contrast, internally illuminated channel-letter signs and raceway-mounted channel letters would be prohibited in the mapped historic sign district.

The draft would also reduce the allowable height for monument signs in the historic area from the ordinance's currently generous allowances to a 5-foot maximum and a typical 20-square-foot size; staff and committee members said the change is intended to keep signage at eye level for pedestrian-oriented Main Street storefronts. Staff noted that signs already installed or applied for before adoption would be grandfathered; when a commissioner asked whether existing 20-foot monument signs would be affected, staff replied, “Any sign that's currently in existence would be grandfathered in as well as any sign that's been applied for prior to the effective date of the ordinance.”

Commissioners asked about enforcement language stating that “plastic shall be avoided.” Staff said the draft uses avoidance language to allow alternative materials that emulate historic materials but acknowledged enforcement could be difficult if the standard were changed to an absolute prohibition.

After brief questions from the commission and no public comments, a commissioner moved to recommend the ordinance text amendment to the city council and a second was given. The commission voted in favor; the motion passed with the commission voice vote of “Aye.”

If the city council approves the ordinance, the changes will apply only inside the map highlighted in the draft (roughly Main Street from Center to 200 North and along Center from 100 to 300), the area staff described as where most of the historic architecture remains.