The following general regulations and standards shall apply to all allowed signs in all zoning districts:
(A) Responsibility for compliance. The responsibility for compliance with this part rests jointly and severally upon the sign owner, all parties holding the present right of possession and control of the lot on which a sign is located, mounted, installed or displayed, and the owner of the lot.
(B) Owner’s consent. No sign may be placed on private property without the consent of the owner of the lot, and such occupants that owner may have provided with the right to consent by agreement or contract.
(C) Restrictions on signs on public property. No signs may be erected upon public property, with the exception of governmental signs, public utility signs, and such other signs specifically authorized by the village. Any sign placed on public property without authorization is an illegal sign under this part and may be summarily removed by the village without notice.
(D) Message substitution. Subject to the lot owner’s consent, a noncommercial message of any type may be substituted, in whole or in part, for any commercial message or any other noncommercial message on a currently existing sign, including a legal nonconforming sign, without consideration of message content, provided that the sign structure is legal. Such substitution of message may be made without any additional approval or permitting. This provision does not create a right to increase the total amount of signage on a lot, nor does it alter or waive the requirement that a sign have a building permit and a certificate of appropriateness.
(E) Logo size. A logo on a sign is limited to no more than 15% of the total sign area.
(F) Building and construction requirements. All signs shall comply with the building and construction regulations and shall be designed and constructed adequately and safely to support their weight and to withstand wind and other stresses to which they may be subjected. Supports and braces shall be an integral part of the sign design. All signs attached to a building shall be installed and maintained so that wall penetrations are watertight and the structure does not exceed allowable stresses of supporting materials. All fasteners used to attach signs to a structure or building shall be properly sized for the design loads and material of the support, have a minimum cross-section diameter of one-quarter inch, and be made of corrosion resistant material.
(G) Obstruction of access ways. No sign shall be located, erected, installed, relocated, maintained, enlarged, expanded or otherwise permitted to obstruct or prevent free ingress and egress from any window, door, fire escape or stairway of any building or structure, or to obstruct light or ventilation required by the building and construction regulations. No sign shall be attached to an external fire escape.
(H) Traffic safety. No sign shall be located, erected, used, displayed, enlarged, expanded, constructed, maintained or illuminated in such a manner that it may interfere with, obstruct the view of, or be confused with any authorized traffic sign, signal or device, or otherwise cause a safety hazard, nuisance or distraction to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, including the requirements of §§ 153.075 and 153.099 of this chapter.
(I) Sign measurement.
(1) Computation of sign area. Sign area is calculated as follows:
(a) For signs on a background, the entire area of the background shall be included in the calculation of the sign area, including any material or color forming the sign face or background used to differentiate the sign from the structure against which it is placed. Sign area does not include any supporting framework or bracing, unless such framework or bracing is part of the message or sign face.
(b) For a sign consisting of freestanding letters, graphics, logos, images or symbols, the sign area is calculated by means of the smallest square, circle, rectangle or triangle, or combination thereof that will encompass the outer limits of the freestanding letters, graphics, logos, images or symbols. Sign area does not include any supporting framework or bracing, unless such framework or bracing is part of the message or sign face. Window signs printed on a transparent film and affixed to a window pane shall be considered freestanding letters, graphics, logos, images or symbols, provided that the portion of the transparent film around the perimeter of the sign message maintains the transparent character of the window and does not contain any items in the sign message.
(c) Any sign wording, illustration or element that is less than two feet from any other sign wording, illustration or element shall be considered shall be considered a single sign for purposes of calculating sign area. No sign shall be nearer than two feet to any other sign or structure which is on the same plane, other than a structure to which it is lawfully attached.
(d) When a sign has more than one display face, all faces shall be included in determining the sign area, provided that, if the sign faces of a two-faced sign are parallel and the distance between them does not exceed 12 inches, the sign area shall be measured as the area of one face.
(e) The sign area of free-form or sculptural (non-planar) signs is calculated as 50% of the sum of the area of the four vertical sides of the smallest cube that will encompass the sign.
(2) Measurement of sign height. When measuring sign height, the height of the sign structure is included.
(a) The sign height of freestanding and monument signs shall be measured from the unaltered, unimproved natural ground level and/or sidewalk adjacent to the sign to the top of the sign and/or sign structure.
(b) The sign height of projecting signs shall be measured from the unaltered, unimproved natural ground level and/or sidewalk under the sign to the top of the sign, exclusive of decorative braces.
(3) Measurement of front façade. For purposes of calculating the combined sign area allowed in § 153.052, the area of the occupant’s front façade shall be measured as follows:
(a) Single story building. The area of the front façade of an occupant’s space in a single story building shall be measured in square feet by multiplying the horizontal width of occupant’s space by the vertical distance of the occupant’s space measured from ground level to the lowest point of the roof, but in no case shall such vertical distance exceed 14 feet in height.
(b) Multistory building. The area of the front façade of an occupant’s space in a multistory building shall be measured in square feet by multiplying the horizontal width of the occupant’s space by the vertical distance of the occupant’s space measured from ground level to the bottom of the sill of the second story window, but in no case shall such vertical distance exceed 14 feet measured from ground level.
(J) Sign illumination. In all zoning districts, sign illumination is limited to allowed exterior illuminated signs. All other illuminated signs are prohibited signs.
(1) Location and design of light source. The lights for exterior illuminated signs shall be located, shielded and directed in such a manner that the light source is not directly visible from any surrounding public or private property. The use of unshielded lights, including incandescent bulbs on poles or strung on poles, wires or any other type of support to illuminate a sign is not allowed. All receptacles or devices used to provide external illumination for wall signs shall not protrude more than nine inches from the face of the sign except for ground lighting.
(2) Hours of illumination. Illumination for an exterior illuminated sign is allowed from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., except that an exterior illuminated sign may remain illuminated during such time as the business is open to the general public, so long as such sign is not a public or private nuisance and in no case later than 11:00 p.m.
(3) Level of illumination. The lighting intensity of an exterior illuminated sign shall not exceed, and shall be maintained at or less than ten foot candles when measured with a standard light meter at four feet from the center of the face of the sign.
(Ord. 1057, passed 2-22-2011)