Spokane Valley council advances sign-code changes to allow limited noncommercial signs in rights of way

City Attorney Kelly Concrete told the Spokane Valley City Council on March 11 that the city is proposing amendments to its sign code to reconcile long-standing enforcement practice with recent First Amendment case law and the city’s comprehensive-plan goals.

The proposed ordinance (drafted as Ordinance 25,001) would continue to bar permanent signs and keep official government signs and bus-bench agreements as exceptions, but it would allow certain noncommercial signs (including signs identifying the location of parking for community events that are open to the public) in unimproved or landscaped portions of the public right of way under strict time, size and placement limits.

Concrete said the change responds to evolving First Amendment jurisprudence and the fact the city’s past enforcement has focused on signs that obstruct travel or create safety hazards rather than a blanket removal of all signs in the right of way. Under the draft language, allowed noncommercial signs must be placed only in green or improved spaces of the right of way,…