The following signs are exempt from regulation under this subchapter:
(A) Any public notice, warning or temporary sign posted by a valid and applicable federal, state or local law, regulation, or ordinance; or posted by a public agency, acting in accordance with an adopted law or ordinance, or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction;
(B) Public utility signs and safety signs required by law;
(C) Any sign inside a building, not attached to a window or door that is not legible from a distance of more than three feet beyond the property line, development site or parcel on which the sign is located, or any sign that the Zoning Administrator determines is not intended to be legible from any street right-of-way or beyond the property line;
(D) Traffic-control signs on private property, such as stop, yield and similar signs, the faces of which meet standards set forth in the Illinois Manual on Uniform Traffic-Control Devices and which contain no commercial message of any sort;
(E) Ghost signs are deemed conforming. Ghost signs may be maintained and repainted but no new information or images may be added to the existing sign. No new wall signs may be painted over an existing ghost sign; or
(F) Signs installed or placed within the city, for the benefit of the city and its residents, by the city staff, with the consent and approval of the City Council; or
(G) Signs in the public right-of-way and on public property:
(1) Signs installed by any of the following government agencies and directly related to the use of the right-of-way or of public property, including the control and direction of traffic are permitted in the public right-of-way and on public property: the city; county; state; any transit company authorized to provide service to or through the city; any public utility with a franchise or other agreement with the city; or any other government entity or person expressly authorized by Illinois law to install a sign in the right-of-way;
(2) Honorary signs acknowledging voluntary efforts to provide landscaping, litter control, or other maintenance, when the signs are installed pursuant to a written policy of the city or the state; or
(3) Any other sign installed or placed in the public right-of-way will be deemed an unlawful sign and will be subject to immediate removal and disposal by the city, without compensation to the owner. The owner or other person placing the sign will, nevertheless, be subject to the penalty provisions of this subchapter.
(Prior Code, § 166.109) (Ord. 2014-040, passed 7-8-2014; Ord. 2023-030, passed 5-23-2023)