Walnut Creek study session restarts sign-code update; working group volunteers named

Walnut Creek City officials and consultants presented a restart of the city's sign-regulation update at a joint study session of the Planning Commission and Design Review Commission on Jan. 30, 2025, and solicited feedback on zoning-, design- and equity-related questions. The meeting concluded with commissioners volunteering to serve on a project working group.

The update is meant to modernize the city's sign standards and design guidelines, which staff and the consultant team said began in 2019 and were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. Erica Vanenbrandt, Walnut Creek City Community Development Director and project manager, said, "It's our intention to be able to use this process ... to ultimately have a sign set of sign regulations that are congruent with what modern day signage requirements ... might be and for its usage for a variety of needs, but also to have it be congruent with the community." The consultant team from Minteer Harnish described the effort as a restart of that earlier work and said it will be guided by input from commissioners, the business community and the public.

The consultants outlined the legal framework that will shape any code changes. Nikki Zanchetta, project planner with Minteer Harnish, told commissioners that "signs are a form of speech that are protected under the First Amendment," and advised the commissions to avoid content-based regulations by focusing instead on location, time/duration and appearance. Michael Gibbons, project manager with Minteer Harnish, added the project will address contemporary trends such as electronic reader boards and newer logo-only designs and will aim to provide clearer, more flexible standards to encourage creative design while offering predictability for applicants.

Commissioners pressed the consultants and staff on several practical and policy questions during the facilitated discussion. Topics raised included whether the code should: allow different standards by zone or character area (for example, downtown versus residential streets); address multilingual and pictogram-based wayfinding to support diversity, equity and inclusion; create standards for blade signs that project over sidewalks; set adjacency rules and light-temperature limits where signage abuts residential uses; and provide guidance on signs that incorporate building façades, projection, or illumination.

Consultants said certain items are outside the scope of the sign code itself and remain the domain of building code and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for interior wayfinding and accessibility. Brent Gibbons, principal planner with Minteer Harnish, said the team can incorporate recommendations for public wayfinding and inclusive language on exterior signs where appropriate. Erica Vanenbrandt noted that the code will be published in the city's e-codifier platform and that online engagement and translation features will be part of outreach.

The consultant team described the planned outreach: a project webpage hosted on the city's site, an interactive questionnaire targeted to businesses and developers, focused meetings with a small working group made up of commissioners and staff, and periodic update meetings with both commissions. For the working group, consultants estimated a maximum commitment of roughly "8 to 12 hours a month" in a more rigorous phase and said they would seek to limit the burden on volunteers.

The session was a study session with no formal votes. Still, commissioners volunteered to serve on the project's working group. Staff acknowledged the volunteers and said follow-up would formalize membership and schedule meetings. Erica Vanenbrandt said the consultants and staff would use commissioner and business feedback to determine whether the work requires a full rewrite of the sign code or smaller targeted changes.

The presentation closed with staff and the consultants saying they will solicit additional community and business input and return with drafts for review. The project team emphasized that any regulatory proposals must remain content neutral to comply with constitutional protections and that building-code and ADA requirements will govern interior wayfinding and accessibility.

For now, the next steps listed by staff and consultants include launching the project webpage and outreach survey, convening the working group, and drafting potential code revisions and design-guideline updates based on the input collected.