Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sign Regulation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee rewrites sign chapter to comply with court rulings, emphasizes placement and manner over content
Summary
Committee members reviewed a rewritten chapter 7 to conform with Supreme Court precedent limiting local sign regulation to manner and placement; the draft adds measurement rules, exemptions, a political sign-free-zone map and enforcement language for unsafe signs.
The committee spent substantial time on proposed revisions to Chapter 7 (signs), rewriting the town's sign code to comply with U.S. Supreme Court precedent that prohibits content-based regulation of signs.
Ruth summarized the legal constraint: after the Gilbert/Reed decisions the town "no longer can we regulate signs based on content," she said, and that the revised draft focuses on "manner and placement" — height, size, materials and location. To illustrate the legal risk of content regulation she said, "you never bet against God. Gilbert lost spectacularly." (Committee members used the example to explain why many prior content-based rules were removed.)
The draft adds clearer sign-measurement rules (how to measure area and height, including when grade affects measurement), provisions for illuminated signs, and a system of exemptions (official notices, required directional signs by state or municipal agencies, flags and religious symbols). The code also adds murals to the permanent-sign discussion and rewrites the temporary-sign rules; the permitted-sign table will use clear markers to show which sign types are permitted (Y), prohibited (N) or conditionally permitted (P) in each zone.
Ruth also described a political sign-free-zone map required by statute for downtown and tourism areas and said the draft includes enforcement language permitting the town to compel repair or removal of structurally unsafe or hazardous signs.
The committee asked staff to spell out table definitions (Y/N/P) and to finish the revised illustrations and sign-measurement examples before the next review. No ordinance was adopted at the meeting.
