Signs use private land and the sight lines created by the public rights-of-way to inform and persuade the general public by publishing a message. Except as provided in Section 51A-7.207, this article provides standards for the erection and maintenance of private signs. All private signs not exempted as provided below shall be erected and maintained in accordance with these standards. The general objectives of these standards are to promote health, safety, welfare, convenience and enjoyment of the public, and, in part to achieve the following:
(a) SAFETY: To promote the safety of persons and property by providing that signs:
(1) do not create a hazard due to collapse, fire, collision, decay or abandonment;
(2) do not obstruct fire fighting or police surveillance; and
(3) do not create traffic hazards by confusing or distracting motorists, or by impairing the driver’s ability to see pedestrians, obstacles, or other vehicles, or to ready traffic signs.
(b) COMMUNICATIONS EFFICIENCY: To promote the efficient transfer of information in sign messages by providing that:
(1) businesses and services may identify themselves;
(2) customers and other persons may locate a business or service;
(3) no person or group is arbitrarily denied the use of the sight lines from the public right-of-way for communication purposes; and
(4) persons exposed to signs are not so overwhelmed by the number of messages presented that they cannot find the information they seek, and are able to observe or ignore messages, according to the observer’s purpose.
(c) LANDSCAPE QUALITY AND PRESERVATION: To protect the public welfare and to enhance the appearance and economic value of the landscape, by providing that signs:
(1) do not interfere with scenic views;
(2) do not create a nuisance to persons using the public rights-of-way;
(3) do not constitute a nuisance to occupancy of adjacent and contiguous property by their brightness, size, height, or movement;
(4) are not detrimental to land or property values; and
(5) contribute to the special character of particular areas or districts within the city, helping the observer to understand the city and orient himself with it. (Ord. Nos. 19455; 22061)
Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, for purposes of this article, the following words and phrases have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
(1) ADVERTISE means to attract, or to attempt to attract, the attention of any person to any business, accommodations, goods, services, property, or commercial activity.
(1.1) ATHLETIC FIELD SIGN means a sign that is designed, intended, or used to inform or advertise to the spectators of an athletic event.
(2) ATTACHED SIGN means any sign attached to, applied on, or supported by, any part of a building (such as a wall, roof, window, canopy, awning, arcade, or marquee) that encloses or covers usable space.
(3) BUILDING means a structure which has a roof supported by columns, walls or air for the shelter, support, or enclosure of persons, animals or chattel.
(4) BUSINESS ZONING DISTRICT means:
(A) for purposes of interpreting Chapter 51: any zoning district designated by this chapter as SC, GR, LC, CA-1, CA-2, HC, I-1, I-2, or I-3. Any PD district is also included in this list, unless specifically excluded by its provisions; and
(B) for purposes of interpreting Chapter 51A: any zoning district designated by this chapter as CR, RR, CS, industrial, central area, mixed use, or multiple commercial. Any PD district is also included in this list, unless specifically excluded by its provisions.
(5) CHARACTER means any letter of the alphabet or numeral.
(6) CITY means the city of Dallas, Texas.
(7) COMMERCIAL MESSAGE means a message placed or caused to be placed before the public by a person or business enterprise directly involved in the manufacture or sale of the products, property, accommodations, services, attractions, or activities or possible substitutes for those things which are the subject of the message and that:
(A) refers to the offer for sale or existence for sale of products, property, accommodations, services, attractions, or activities; or
(B) attracts attention to a business or to products, property, accommodations, services, attractions, or activities that are offered or exist for sale or for hire.
(8) COMMISSION means the city plan commission of the city of Dallas.
(9) DETACHED SIGN means any sign connected to the ground that is not an attached, portable, or vehicular sign.
(10) Reserved.
(11) EFFECTIVE AREA means the following:
(A) For a detached sign, the area within a minimum imaginary rectangle of vertical and horizontal lines that fully contains all extremities of the sign, excluding its supports. This rectangle is calculated from an orthographic projection of the sign viewed horizontally. The viewpoint for this projection that produces the largest rectangle must be used. If elements of the sign are movable or flexible, such as a flag or a string of lights, the measurement is taken when the elements are fully extended and parallel to the plane of view.
(B) For an attached sign, the sum of the areas within minimum imaginary rectangles of vertical and horizontal lines, each of which fully contains a word. If a design, outline, illustration, or interior illumination surrounds or attracts attention to a word, then it is included in the calculation of effective area.
(12) ERECT means to build, attach, hang, place, suspend, fasten, affix, maintain, paint, draw, or otherwise construct.
(12.1) ESCARPMENT ZONE means the escarpment zone as defined in Section 51A-5.201.
(13) EXPRESSWAY means:
(A) the Dallas North Tollway;
(B) Interstate Highway 20;
(C) Interstate Highway 30;
(D) Interstate Highway 35E;
(E) Interstate Highway 45;
(F) Interstate Highway 635;
(G) U.S. Highway 67;
(H) U.S. Highway 75;
(I) U.S. Highway 80 east of Interstate Highway 30 to the city limits;
(J) U.S. Highway 175;
(K) State Highway 114;
(L) State Highway 183;
(M) Spur 408;
(N) Walton Walker Boulevard from Spur 408 north to the city limits, and from Stemmons Freeway south to the city limits; and
(O) Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
(13.1) EXPRESSWAY SIGN means a sign that is wholly within 100 feet of an expressway right-of-way and whose message is visible from the main traveled way or that has been relocated adjacent to an expressway pursuant to Section 51A-7.307(f).
(14) FACADE means any separate face of a building, including parapet walls and omitted wall lines, or any part of a building which encloses or covers usable space. Where separate faces are oriented in the same direction, or in the directions within 45¡ of one another, they are to be considered as part of a single facade.
(14.1) GEOLOGICALLY SIMILAR AREAS means “geologically similar areas” as defined in Section 51A-5.201.
(15) GOVERNMENT SIGN means a flag, insignia, legal notice, informational, directional, traffic, or safe school zone sign which is legally required or necessary to the essential functions of government agencies.
(16) HEIGHT, as applied to a sign, means the vertical distance between the highest part of the sign or its supporting structure, whichever is higher, and a level plane going through the nearest point of the vehicular traffic surface of the adjacent improved public right-of-way, other than an alley. In the event a sign is equidistant from more than one improved public right-of-way, none of which are alleys, the highest point shall be used.
(16.1) HIGHWAY BEAUTIFICATION ACT (HBA) SIGN means a non-premise sign that is within 660 feet of an expressway or new expressway right-of-way and whose message is visible from the main traveled way.
(17) ILLUMINATED SIGN means any sign that is directly lighted by any electrical light source, internal or external. This definition does not include signs that are illuminated by street lights or other light sources owned by any public agency or light sources that are specifically operated for the purpose of lighting the area in which the sign is located rather than the sign itself.
(18) INTERSECTION means the junctions of the centerlines of any two public rights-of-way, other than alleyways, crossing at grade, or, where the crossing is separated at grade, the intersection is the point where expressway travel pavements converge or diverge, or the point where any expressway interchange ramp intersects the expressway travel pavement. For purposes of this definition, the term “expressway” includes “new expressway.”
(19) LUMINANCE means the brightness of a sign or a portion thereof expressed in terms of footlamberts. For purposes of this article, luminance is determined by the use of an exposure meter calibrated to standards established by the National Bureau of Standards and equipped with a footlambert scale.
(20) MOVEMENT CONTROL SIGN means a sign that directs vehicular or pedestrian movement within or onto the premise on which the movement control sign is located.
(20.1) NEW EXPRESSWAY means a divided highway with full control of access whose original mainlanes in the city of Dallas were not entirely open to the public as of July 1, 1999. The President George Bush Turnpike (State Highway 190) is a new expressway under this definition.
(21) NON-BUSINESS ZONING DISTRICT means any zoning district not designated as a business district as defined in this section. Any parking district may be specifically designated a business zoning district for the purposes of this article.
(22) NONCOMMERCIAL MESSAGE means any message that is not a commercial message.
(23) NON-PREMISE SIGN means any sign that is not a premise sign.
(24) OCCUPANCY means the purpose for which a building is used or intended to be used. The term also includes the building or room housing such use.
(25) ONE SIGN means any number of detached signs structurally connected above grade.
(26) PORTABLE SIGN means any sign that is not securely connected to the ground in such a way that it cannot easily be moved from one location to another and that is not an attached sign, vehicular sign, or a sign that refers solely to the sale or lease of the premises.
(27) PREMISE means a lot or unplatted tract that is reflected in the plat books of the building inspection division of the city. Refer to Section 51A-7.208 of this article.
(28) PREMISE SIGN means any sign the content of which relates to the premises on which it is located, referring exclusively to the following:
(A) the name of the owner or occupant of the premises, or the identification of the premises;
(B) accommodations, services, or activities offered or conducted on the premises;
(C) products sold, other than incidentally, on the premises if no more than 70 percent of the sign is devoted to the advertisement of products by brand name or symbol; or
(D) the sale, lease, or construction of the premises.
(29) PRIVATE PROPERTY means any property not dedicated to public use, except that “private property” does not include the following:
(A) A private street or alley.
(B) For purposes of interpreting Chapter 51, property on which a utility and services use, post office, refuse transfer station, or sanitary landfill is being conducted as a main use. For purposes of interpreting Chapter 51A, property on which a utility and public service use listed in Section 51A-4.212 is being conducted as a main use.
(C) A railroad right-of-way.
(D) A cemetery or mausoleum.
(30) PROTECTIVE SIGN means any sign that is commonly associated with safeguarding the permitted uses of the occupancy, including, but not limited to “bad dog,” “no trespassing,” and “no solicitors.”
(30.1) RESIDENTIAL ZONING DISTRICT means:
(A) an A(A), R(A), D(A), TH(A), CH, MF(A), or MH(A) zoning district; or
(B) any identifiable portion of a special purpose, conservation, or planned development district (such as a subarea or subdistrict) that allows single family, duplex, manufactured home, multifamily (multiple family), or retirement housing uses.
(30.2) SAFE SCHOOL ZONE SIGN means a government sign:
(A) to be placed in the public right-of-way at the direction of a school district;
(B) indicating a safe school hotline number, or an alcohol-free, gun-free, or drug-free zone for a school; and
(C) erected to give notice of these zones in order to aid in the enforcement of state or federal laws involving violation of certain crimes in proximity of a school.
(31) SETBACK means the distance between a sign and the nearest public right-of-way line. An alley is not considered to be public right-of-way for the purpose of calculating a setback. Where a public way crosses a railroad right-of-way, the setback is measured from the public right-of-way line extended across the railroad right-of-way.
(32) SIGN means any device, flag, light, figure, picture, letter, word, message, symbol, plaque, poster, display, design, painting, drawing, billboard, wind device, or other thing visible from outside the premise on which it is located and that is designed, intended, or used to inform or advertise to persons not on that premise. This definition does not include:
(A) searchlights and landscape features that display no words or symbols;
(B) works of art that are not designed, intended or used to advertise; or
(C) temporary holiday decorations.
(33) SIGN SUPPORT means any pole, post, strut, cable, or other structural fixture or framework necessary to hold and secure a sign, providing that said fixture or framework is not imprinted with any picture, symbol or word using characters in excess of one inch in height, nor is internally or decoratively illuminated.
(34) SPECIAL PURPOSE SIGN means a sign temporarily supplementing the permanent signs on a premise.
(34.1) SUBDIVISION SIGN means a sign that identifies a single family, duplex, or townhouse residential neighborhood or a business park.
(35) VEHICULAR SIGN means any sign on a vehicle moving along the ground or on any vehicle parked temporarily, incidental to its principal use for transportation. This definition does not include signs that are being transported to a site of permanent erection.
(36) WIND DEVICE means any flag, banner, pennant, streamer, or similar device that moves freely in the wind. All wind devices are considered to be signs, and are regulated and classified as attached or detached, by the same rules as other signs.
(37) WORD: For purposes of this article, each of the following is considered to be one word:
(A) Any word in any language found in any standard unabridged dictionary or dictionary of slang.
(B) Any proper noun or any initial or series of initials.
(C) Any separate character, symbol, or abbreviation, such as “&”, “$”, “%”, and “Inc.”.
(D) Any telephone number, street number, or commonly used, combination of numerals and/or symbols such as “$5.00", or “50%”.
(E) Any symbol or logo that is a registered trademark, but which itself contains no word or character. (Ord. Nos. 19455; 19786; 20343; 20379; 20927; 21186; 21401; 22061; 22392; 24232; 25047; 25455; 27516)
(a) No sign shall be located on a roof or project over a building, except as provided in Section 51A-7.305.
(b) No sign shall be located within or project over any public right-of-way, or across the public right-of-way line extended across a railroad right-of-way, except:
(1) Signs attached to and projecting no more than 18 inches from a building wall legally located at or near the right-of-way line.
(c) Whenever any sign is located in violation of Subsection (b), it is prima facie evidence that the person whose address or telephone number is listed on the sign, or who is otherwise named, described, or identified on the sign, is the person who committed the violation, either personally or through an agent or employee.
(d) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (b) that the sign was authorized or required by another city ordinance, state law, or federal law. (Ord. Nos. 19455; 20359; 20927; 25455; 26512)
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