Planning Commission to seek workshop on sign-code revisions after federal court rulings

Planning staff recommended a workshop to review proposed revisions to McMinnville’s sign code after a series of federal court decisions that limit local regulation of sign content.

“...we have to be our sign note has to be where we're treating every sign the same. Now the terms are stated. But we can't we can regulate time, place, and manner. We can't regulate content, verbiage, colors, those type of things,” Sean (city staff) said, summarizing legal constraints on sign regulation. Staff has drafted revisions and received public comment and suggested a work session with the city council to align the Planning Commission and council before formal hearings.

Commissioners discussed specific issues in the draft, including electronic signs, message rotation and whether different zone districts should have different time limits. Sean said the courts have found municipalities in violation when they regulated content differently—for example, treating a realtor yard sign differently than a personal-yard sign—and that the draft seeks to make time/place/manner rules uniform so the city does not regulate content.

Staff proposed starting with a narrow draft and using a workshop to “hash it out” before forwarding a unified proposal to the city council. No vote was taken; staff will schedule a workshop and continue public outreach on the sign-code revisions.

The commission also received public comment during the code process and staff said they will bring draft language back to the commission after the workshop.