It is the purpose of this Ordinance to protect the public health, safety, and welfare through the establishment of comprehensive and balanced regulations for signage in the City of Columbus. The City Council finds that unregulated signage may be detrimental to community aesthetics and public safety. The City Council finds that sign sizes, heights, and lighting have different aesthetic impacts within different zoning districts, such as residential districts and business districts, and that varying sign standards, based upon development density and highway traffic capacity, are appropriate to protect the public health, safety, and welfare. In establishing these sign regulations, the City Council makes the following additional findings to support the purpose of these regulations:
A. General advertising signs are necessary to allow for business identity and promotion and to allow consumers to locate and access businesses in the City.
B. Public information signage and traffic signage is necessary to promote public health, safety and welfare.
C. There is a need to balance the purpose of adequate advertising opportunities with proper design controls and uniform standards that promote aesthetic quality in the City, prevent public nuisance, and promote public safety.
D. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has technical memoranda identifying the distracting characteristics of flashing signs and dynamic signs, which may have impact on vehicular safety.
E. The City Council believes that sign dimensions and controlling the frequency of changes in dynamic sign messages correlates to the aesthetic impact of such signs, particularly on county and local roadways, in residential districts, and in business districts with higher standards for design and architectural controls.
F. Uniform sign standards are appropriate in each zoning district to create fair and equitable advertising opportunities for all businesses, to protect property investments and to promote pedestrian and motorist welfare and safety.
G. The varying land uses and development densities in different zoning districts, in addition to different highway functions and capacities, suggest that the magnitude and intensity of signs may have greater impact in one zoning district than another.
H. Sign standards that are more restrictive in residential districts and commercial districts with high site design and architectural standards are in the public interest in order to minimize aesthetic impacts and public nuisance and to protect private property investment.
I. Standards for the illumination of signs that are more restrictive in residential districts and commercial districts with high site design and architectural standards are in the public interest in order to minimize aesthetic impacts and public nuisance and, to protect private property investment.
[§7B-101 added by Ord. No. 10-06, effective May 6, 2010.]