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City staff proposes pole-banner licensing policy, shortens general-use window
Summary
City staff presented a draft administrative licensing policy to regulate pole/banner use, clarifying it as a "license for use," shortening general-use allocations from 12 to six months and giving corridor improvement authorities first-refusal and limited approval rights; staff will finalize and publish the policy after local outreach.
Mr. Matthews, an environmental services staff member presenting the item, told the commission staff had received complaints about the city’s pole/banner program and found it lacked a formal policy and renewal process. “This is a license for use,” he said, citing a law department clarification that the program is a license rather than a permit and therefore can include explicit rules and withdrawal authority.
The draft administrative policy, Mr. Matthews said, clarifies program goals — primarily place-making for corridor improvement districts (CIAs) and promotion opportunities for local businesses and institutional users — and proposes permitting changes to tighten control. Among the concrete changes is a reduction of the general-use application window from 12 months to six months, intended to prevent perpetual allocations and create a clearer renewal process.
Mr. Matthews said the proposal would give CIAs a period of first right of refusal and a right to approve applications from businesses outside their corridor, limited to the authority’s corridor boundaries. The presenter said institutional users could obtain an annual license limited to poles immediately adjacent to their facility and that the draft does not give CIAs veto power over those institutional placements.
Presiding official raised a cross-advertising concern, asking whether a downtown banner could be used by an Uptown business to promote its district and whether CIAs would have priority over institutional users for such placements. Presiding official said a neighborhood might want banners downtown to direct visitors: “That banner wouldn't be Uptown trying to promote Uptown, but it wouldn't be in the Uptown district.” Mr. Matthews said the concern had surfaced with several CIAs and noted one alternative being pursued was permanent directional signage to direct visitors from the downtown core to neighborhood commercial areas.
Mr. Matthews emphasized this is an administrative policy and therefore does not require a commission vote. He said staff will meet with the smart zone and other stakeholders, incorporate feedback, revise and socialize the draft, publish it and aim to implement it by July 1, with an effective start date of Jan. 1, 2026. The commission provided feedback but did not take formal action on the policy at the meeting.
