(a) General Intent: The Village of Elida recognizes that signs are an important means of visual communication for the public convenience and that businesses, services and other activities have the right to identifY themselves by using signs that are accessory and incidental to the use of the premises where signs are located. The goal of the chapter is to protect the general health, safety, and welfare of the community by providing an instrument for protecting the physical appearance of the community and for encouraging high quality, effective outdoor graphics for the purposes of navigation, information, and identification. Specifically, it is the intent of this section to provide businesses in the Village with equitable sign standards in accord with fair competition and aesthetic standards acceptable to the community, and to provide the public with a safe and effective means of locating businesses, services, areas, and points of interest in the Village. This section is based on the premise that signs are as much subject to control as noise, odors, debris and similar characteristics of land use, that if not controlled and regulated, can become a nuisance to adjacent properties or the community in general, or depreciate the value of other properties in the community. All signs located on land within the Village and visible from any public right-of-way or adjacent property shall comply with this chapter unless specifically exempted herein.
(b) Regulatory Purpose: This chapter regulates signage for the following specific reasons:
(1) To protect the health, safety and welfare of the public from hazardous conditions which result from structurally unsafe signage;
(2) To ensure that signage does not obscure or distract the vision of motorist, such as signs which compete or conflict with necessary traffic signs and warning signals, and which may cause a traffic hazard;
(3) To protect the public from sign blight and profuse signage which may cause a nuisance to adjacent properties and detracts rather than facilitates identification of businesses and other land uses; and,
(4) To provide signage appropriate to land use and to make appropriate adjustments in the size and amount of signage based on the land use and building size.
(c) Regulatory Conflicts: Nothing contained herein shall be deemed a waiver of the provisions of any other regulation applicable to signs. Signs located in areas governed by several applicable regulations shall comply with all such regulations. If there is a conflict between these regulations and any other regulations, the more stringent shall apply.
(d) Severability: The provisions of this chapter are severable. If any part of this chapter is declared unconstitutional by a final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, that decision shall not affect any portion of the chapter which remains, but the remainder shall be in full force and effect as if the portion declared unconstitutional had never been part of the chapter.
(Ord. 1045. Passed 10-14-14.)