Sign regulations, including provisions to control the type, design, size, location, motion, illumination, enforcement and maintenance thereof, are established in order to achieve, among others, the following purposes:
(a) To maintain high quality districts of all land uses, and attractive public and private facilities of all types, by permitting only signs appropriate to their environs;
(b) To provide for reasonable and appropriate methods for identifying establishments in office, business and industrial districts by relating the size, type and design of signs to the size, type and design of the office, business and industrial establishments;
(c) To eliminate any conflict between traffic control signs and other signs which would be hazardous to the safety of the motoring public or pedestrians;
(d) To control the design and size of all signs so that their appearance will be aesthetically harmonious with an overall urban design for the area, in accordance with commonly accepted community planning and design practices, and the City's Master Plan.
The City does not intend to infringe on the rights of free speech as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, §11 of the Ohio Constitution. All ordinances in this Chapter are to be construed, whenever possible, in favor of vigorous political debate and accommodation of the rights of residents and visitors to speak freely.