ARTICLE 1325 Sign Regulations

(1) Signs obstruct views, distract motorists, displace alternative uses for land, and pose other problems that legitimately call for regulation. The purpose of this article is to regulate the size, color, illumination, movement, materials, location, height, and condition of all signs placed on property for exterior observation, thus ensuring the protection of property values; preservation of the character of the various neighborhoods; creation of a convenient, attractive, and harmonious community; and the safety and welfare of pedestrians and wheeled traffic, while providing convenience to citizens and encouraging economic development. This article allows adequate communication through signage while encouraging aesthetic quality in the design, location, and size of all signs. These regulations do not eliminate all the harms that may be created by the installation and display of signs. Rather, they strike an appropriate balance that preserves ample channels of communication by means of signs while still reducing and mitigating the extent of the harms caused by signs.

(2) This article shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantee of free speech. If any provision of this article is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such finding shall not affect the validity of other provisions of this article which can be given effect without the invalid provision.

(3) Signs not expressly permitted under this code are prohibited.

(4) The City of Bridgeport, the State of West Virginia and other governmental entities are not subject to the requirements of this article.

(b) Intent. Signs have a strong visual impact on the character and quality of the community. As a prominent part of the scenery, they attract or repel the viewing public, affect the safety of vehicular traffic, and their suitability or appropriateness helps to set the tone for the community. Because the City relies upon its physical setting and beauty to attract commerce, aesthetic considerations assume economic value. It is the intent of the City, through this chapter, to protect and enhance both the City's residential character and its economic base through the provision of appropriate and aesthetic signage. In addition, it is the intent of the City to limit the size, type and location of signs in order to minimize their distracting effect on drivers and thereby improve traffic safety.

(c) Purpose. The purpose of this article is to promote the public health, safety and welfare through a comprehensive system of reasonable effective consistent, content-neutral and nondiscriminatory sign standards and requirements. This article has been adopted to:

(1) Promote and accomplish the goals, policies and objectives of the City's comprehensive plan and the city council's vision, mission and goals statement;

(2) Provide minimum standards in order to safeguard life, health, property and public welfare and promote traffic safety by controlling the design, quality of materials, construction, illumination, size, location and maintenance of signs and sign structures and discouraging excessive numbers of signs;

(3) Recognize free speech rights by regulating signs in a content-neutral manner;

(4) Promote the free flow of traffic and protect pedestrians and motorists from injury and property damage caused by or which may be fully or partially attributable to cluttered, distracting and/or illegible signage;

(5) Promote a positive visual image of the City and protect the beauty of the City's built environment by encouraging signs that are compatible with the architectural style, characteristics, and scale of the building to which they may be attached; appropriate to the size of the subject property and amount of street frontage adjacent to the subject property; and compatible with adjacent buildings and businesses;

(6) Protect property values, the local economy and the quality of life by preserving and enhancing the appearance of the City's streetscape;

(7) Provide consistent sign design standards;

(8) Protect and encourage creative and innovative approaches to signage and signs that are of a quality design, pleasing in appearance and are appropriate in size, materials and illumination to the surrounding area;

(9) Provide an improved visual environment for the citizens of and visitors to the City;

(10) Adopt clear, understandable regulations which will assure equal protection and fair treatment under the law through consistent application of the regulations and consistent enforcement of the article;

(11) Balance both public and private business needs with the specific objectives of creating a community with an unmatched quality of life and strong focus on economic well-being, aesthetics, community and family, the environment and public infrastructure;

(12) Support and enhance the economic well-being of all business within the City and recognize the needs of all businesses to identify their premises and advertise their products and services;

(13) Recognize that the aesthetic value of the total environment affects economic values and that an unrestricted proliferation of signs can and does detract from the economic value of the community; and

(14) Regulate the use ofbillboard signs to certain zoning districts by recognizing that billboards affect the aesthetic value of the community, thereby reducing property values and impact traffic safety because of the distraction that is created by large signage along public rights of way.

(d) Interpretation.

(1) This article is not intended to and shall not be interpreted to restrict speech based on its content, viewpoint, or message.

(2) Any classification of signs in this article which purports to permit speech because of the type of sign or identity of the sign user or otherwise, shall be interpreted to allow either commercial or non-commercial speech on the sign.

(3) No part of this article shall be construed to favor commercial speech over noncommercial speech.

(Passed 9-14-20.)

1325.02 DEFINITIONS.

BILLBOARD: A sign which meets any one or more of the following criteria:

(1) A permanent structure which is used for the display of off-site commercial messages;

(2) A Permanent structure sign which constitutes a principal, separate or secondary use, as opposed to an accessory use of the parcel on which it is located;

(3) A sign used as advertising for hire, e.g., on which display space is made available to parties, other than the owner or operator of the sign or occupant of the parcel in exchange for a rent, fee or other consideration; or

(4) An off-site advertising sign on which space is leased or rented.

DISPLAY SIZE OR FACE: The entire advertising area of a sign excluding framing, trim, or supporting structure.

FREESTANDING SIGN: Any sign not affixed to a building.

ILLUMINATED SIGN: Any sign illuminated by electricity, gas or other artificial light, including reflective or phosphorescent light.

STACKED SIGN: A single structure with two outdoor advertising signs with one sign placed directly above the other with their faces oriented in the same direction.

SIDE-BY-SIDE-SIGN: Two adjacent outdoor advertising signs on a single structure with both faces oriented in the same direction.

TRI-VISION SIGN: A sign constructed to use multiple face panels or slats that rotate to different messages in a fixed position.

MARQUEE SIGN: A canopy extending more than two (2) feet from a building, with lettering thereon.

MINOR SIGN: Any sign that is (1) designed to be easily moved, (2) typically not permanently attached to a structure or the ground, and (3) is not illuminated. Such signs include but are not limited to A-frame signs, banners, posters, window signs, yard signs or other movable signs. For purposes of this article, flags and vehicles are not minor signs.

MOBILE SIGN: Any sign not designed or intended to be anchored to the ground and designed and intended to be capable of being transported over public roads and streets, whether or not it is so transported.

MURAL: An on-premises sign that is hand-painted, hand tiled or other similarly created or digitally printed picture/image affixed directly onto a vertical building wall, which may or may not contain text, logos, and/ or symbols.

OFF-SITE OR OFF-PREMISES SIGN: A permanent sign that identifies, advertises or attracts attention to a business, product, service or activity sold, existing or offered at a different location. The off-premises/on-site distinction applies only to commercial messages.

ON-SITE OR ON-PREMISES SIGN: Any sign that identifies, advertises or attracts attention to a business, product, service, event or activity sold, existing or offered upon the same property or land use as the sign. The off-site/on-site distinction applies only to commercial messages.

OUTDOOR SIGN: Any permanent On-Site or On-Premises sign or any permanent noncommercial Off-Site or Off-Premises Sign. For purposes of this ordinance Billboards are excluded from the definition of Outdoor Sign.

PENNANT: Any lightweight plastic, fabric, or other material, whether or not containing a message of any kind, suspended from a rope, wire, or string, usually in series, designed to move in the wind.

PERMANENT SIGN: Any sign intended and installed to be permanently in place at a given location by means of suitable fastening to a building or to a structure specifically erected to hold such sign(s) or to the ground.

ROOF SIGN: Any sign in which all or any part extends above the wall of any building or structure, where said wall does not extend above the roofline. In no event shall a sign permitted as defined by "wall sign" extend beyond the actual wall surface.

SIGN: Any material, structure or device or part thereof composed of lettered or pictorial matter or upon which lettered or pictorial matter is placed when used or located out of doors or outside or on the exterior of any building, including window display area, for display of an advertisement, announcement, notice, directional matter or name, and includes sign frames, billboards, signboards, painted wall signs, hanging signs, illuminated signs, pennants, fluttering devices, projecting signs or ground signs, and shall also include any announcement, declaration, demonstration, display, illustration or insignia used to advertise, inform or promote the interests of any person or business when the same is placed in view of the general public.

TEMPORARY SIGN: A sign intended to display either commercial or non-commercial messages of a transitory or temporary nature. A Temporary Sign includes a portable sign, or any sign not permanently embedded in the ground or not permanently affixed to a building or a sign structure that is not permanently embedded in the ground.

(Passed 9-14-20.)

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