Grass Valley council introduces ordinance setting standards for public art, adopts notice of exemption

The Grass Valley City Council on Tuesday introduced an ordinance that would add standards for visual art installations on publicly owned property and on nonresidential private property in the city and adopted a notice of exemption for the project, voting unanimously to move the draft forward.

City Planner Amy Wilson said the draft ordinance would expand the city’s existing mural rules to cover other visual art — for example sculptures and mosaics — and would create a consistent approval path: applications for art on private, nonresidential property would be considered by the Planning Commission with a Development Review Committee recommendation, while art on publicly owned property would come to council with Planning Commission and DRC recommendations. Wilson said the Planning Commission recommended approval at its Aug. 19 meeting and that the ordinance…