(a) Purpose. It is the purpose of these regulations to permit the use of signs as a means of communication in the City; to maintain and enhance the City's natural and manmade environment; to encourage an attractive and healthy economic environment; to minimize the possible adverse effects of signs on nearby public and private property; and to enable the fair and consistent enforcement of these sign regulations.
(b) Objectives. It is further the purpose of this chapter to achieve the following signage objectives through regulation of signs, including provisions to control the type, design, size, location and maintenance thereof:
(1) To promote clarity and effectiveness in sign communications, by encouraging signs of high quality graphic design that are visible, legible and readable in the circumstances in which they are seen;
(2) To protect the. general public from damage and injury caused by the distractions, hazards and obstructions caused by signs of excessive size or number;
(3) To eliminate any conflict between signs which would be hazardous to the safety of the motoring public or pedestrians;
(4) To control the design of signs so that their appearance will be aesthetically harmonious with their surroundings;
(5) To promote attractive and maintain high value residential districts;
(6) To provide reasonable, yet appropriate, conditions for signs in nonresidential districts by relating the size, type and design of signs to the type and size of establishments;
(7) To ensure among businesses an equitable distribution of the right to identify a place or activity with a visible on-premises sign by preventing signs which block other signs and cause confusing visual clutter;
(8) To provide for appropriate signs for the encouragement of industrial development; and
(9) To preserve the value of property by assuring the compatibility of signs with surrounding land uses.
(c) Findings. The purposes and objectives stated above are based on the following findings concerning signs:
(1) Without adequate regulation and design standards, signs are a nuisance;
(2) That business and other institutions located along public and private streets have a need to identify themselves and their activities to motorists and pedestrians by means of signs;
(3) That excessive signs with respect to structural type, size and number create dangerous traffic conditions, intrude on motorist and pedestrian enjoyment of the natural and manmade beauty of the City, and as such, are detrimental to the public health, safety and general welfare of the City;
(4) In view of the foregoing, all signs not conforming with the provisions of this chapter are hereby declared a nuisance. lt is further declared that the regulations contained in this chapter are necessary to abate the nuisance and to achieve the purposes of this chapter;. and
(5) Regulation of certain types of signs, including instructional and nameplates/addresses, are necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City.
(Ord. 20-13. Passed 4-22-13.)