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Tyrone council debates allowing digital displays and billboards but gives staff no broad direction on internal illumination
Summary
Councilors debated whether to allow internally illuminated signs and digital displays—staff said current ordinance bars these and that billboards are best reclassified as freestanding signs subject to size limits—but council declined to direct staff to prepare regulated internal-illumination options and asked staff to address billboards separately.
Town staff reviewed the existing Tyrone sign ordinance and told council the code currently prohibits digital displays and internally illuminated signs, though some internally lit signs are grandfathered.
Philip, a town planner, told the council, "Currently, the town's ordinance does not allow digital displays or any internally illuminated signage," and explained staff could remove an explicit billboard prohibition and instead treat them as freestanding signs subject to size limits. He said many recent inquiries for digital displays have come from assembly uses — churches, theaters and the town depot — and noted digital displays raise traffic-safety and consistency concerns.
Council members expressed mixed views. One councilor said they worry about a slippery slope toward more advertising and visual clutter, while another said single-color, tightly regulated displays could be acceptable for uses such as the Legacy Theater. Dennis, a staff member who joined the discussion, summarized technical constraints for digital displays — including concerns about message dwell time, scrolling speed, and color — and recommended that if council allowed internal illumination it should be regulated uniformly.
On murals and billboards, staff said murals on town property could be pursued separately, and that private wall-painted signage would be treated under the town's wall-sign regulations. For billboards, staff proposed reclassifying them as freestanding signs with size and design limits rather than an outright ban; existing billboards would remain grandfathered.
Council took no direction to prepare ordinance options for regulated internal illumination but agreed staff should return with options addressing the billboard/freestanding-sign discrepancy at a future meeting. No ordinance change was adopted at this meeting.
