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Glendale approves targeted sign-code updates to speed approvals for businesses
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Summary
Council adopted ordinance changes that let businesses have multiple wall signs (up to four or 150 sq ft total), allow monument signs to show up to three tenants, and clarify when decorative elements are regulated as signs; staff said changes reflect national-branding practices and aim to reduce repetitive council variances.
Community Development Director Meredith Perks presented targeted revisions to Glendale’s sign code designed to clarify sign definitions and reduce the number of variances and planning requests for routine branding elements.
Perks said staff combined industrial, manufacturing and retail categories for consistency, allowed multiple wall signs up to a total maximum sign area (with a ceiling of 150 square feet), and permitted monument signs to list up to three tenant businesses before a property enters the plan-sign program. “So those are the primary changes,” Perks said, adding that the revisions also clarify when a decorative mural or art becomes a sign because it includes commercial messaging, branding or a logo.
Councilmembers asked about how many existing businesses would be affected and whether previously approved exceptions would be grandfathered; Perks said most previously exceptioned signs would now be in compliance and that the intent was to bring out-of-compliance cases into compliance rather than force removals. Members also discussed brand-specific elements, citing car dealers and national restaurant chains as examples; the Council referenced a previous planning-commission review when Chick-fil-A’s ornamental cows and other elements were reclassified as signs.
The council moved and unanimously adopted the amended sign ordinance, and staff were thanked for the work of compiling examples and drafting language that will allow staff greater flexibility to administratively approve routine sign requests.
