Exterior signs, street graphics, banners, advertising displays, and attention getting devices significantly impact a community's scenic character and aesthetic quality. As a resort community on the largest lake in New Mexico, the city is committed to maintaining a calming, attractive visual environment and motorist safety for visitors and residents while promoting a healthy business climate for tourism development and economic opportunity. The purpose of this chapter is to:
(A) Establish a comprehensive yet flexible system for regulating all signs, street graphics, and advertising devices in order to eliminate visual clutter and promote the general health, safety, welfare, and community environment;
(B) Balance the needs of businesses that rely on signs as an essential communication tool, the public who relies on signs for information and way finding, safety of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, protection of property, and enjoyment of the community's appearance and character;
(C) Strive for tasteful signs, displays, and street graphics that are newly constructed or like-new, freshly painted, neat, not dilapidated, not obscene, resort friendly, and constructed and installed to meet public health and safety standards; and
(D) Establish the city's authority to fairly and consistently administer and enforce these regulations.
(Ord. 132, passed 2-13-2012; Am. Ord. 181, passed 3-20-2019; Am. Ord. 197, passed 8-18-2021)