For the purposes of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ABANDONED SIGN. Any sign and/or its supporting sign structure which remains without a message or whose display surface remains blank for a period of 1 year or more, or any sign which pertains to a time, event, or purpose which no longer applies, shall be deemed to have been abandoned. Signs applicable to a business temporarily suspended because of a change in ownership or management of such business shall not be deemed abandoned unless the property remains vacant for a period of 1 year or more. Any sign remaining after demolition of a principal structure shall be deemed to be abandoned. Signs which are present because of being legally established nonconforming signs or signs which have required a conditional use permit or a variance shall also be subject to the definition of ABANDONED SIGN.
ADMINISTRATOR. The Zoning Administrator or designated representative.
ANIMATION. The movement of any object or light used in conjunction with a sign such as blinking, flashing, traveling, scrolling or changing degree of intensity of any light movement other than burning continuously.
AREA. See SIGN, AREA OF.
AWNING. A roof-like cover, often of fabric, plastic, metal or glass designed and intended for protection from the weather or as a decorative embellishment, and which projects from a wall or roof of a structure primarily over a window, walk, or the like. Any part of an awning which also projects over a door shall be counted as an AWNING.
AWNING SIGN. A building sign or graphic painted on, printed on, or attached flat against the surface of an awning.
BALLOON SIGN. A sign consisting of a bag made of lightweight material supported by helium, hot or pressurized air which is greater than 24 inches in diameter.
BANNER SIGN. A sign made of fabric or any non-rigid material with no enclosing framework.
BILLBOARD. See OFF-PREMISES SIGN.
BUILDING FACE. The exposed face of a building, including windows and doors, from ground level to the roof line. Where a building has a facade, mansard, or awning, the Zoning Administrator shall work with the applicant to determine what constitutes the aggregate building face for purposes of signage.
CANOPY. A rigid multi-sided structure covered with fabric, metal or other material and supported by a building at one or more points or extremities and by columns or posts embedded in the ground at other points or extremities which provides shelter over a doorway.
CANOPY SIGN. Any sign that is part of or attached to a canopy, made of fabric, plastic or structural protective cover over a door or entrance. A CANOPY SIGN is not a marquee and is different from service area canopy signs.
CHANGEABLE COPY SIGN. A sign or portion thereof with characters, letter or illustrations that can be changed or rearranged without altering the face or the surface of the sign. CHANGEABLE COPY SIGNS do not include signs upon which characters, letters, or illustrations change or rearrange only once in a 24-hour period.
CLEARANCE (OF A SIGN). The smallest vertical distance between the grade of the adjacent street, highway, or street curb and the lowest point of any sign, includes framework and embellishments, extending over that grade.
COMMERCIAL SPEECH. Speech or graphics advertising a business, profession, commodity, service or entertainment.
COMMUNITY/SPECIAL EVENT SIGN. A sign which solicits for a special short term or one-time civic event. Such events may include, but shall not be limited to: seasonal celebrations, community programs and activities, or the location of places or events of interest to the community or tourists. Such events must appeal to a broad audience, are open to the public, and are accessible to all residents or visitors.
COPY. The graphic content of a sign surface in either permanent or removable letter, pictographic, symbolic, or alphabetic form.
DIRECTIONAL SIGN - OFF-PREMISE. An off-premise sign which provides directional assistance to access an establishment conveniently and safely.
DIRECTIONAL SIGN - ON-PREMISE. An on-premise sign giving directions, instructions, or facility information and which may contain the name or logo of an establishment but no advertising copy, e.g., parking or exit and entrance signs. May contain logo provided that the logo may not comprise more than 20% of the total sign area.
DOUBLE-FACED SIGN. A sign with 2 faces, essentially back-to-back or v-construction.
DYNAMIC DISPLAY. Any characteristics of a sign that appear to have movement or that appear to change, caused by any method other than physically removing and replacing the sign or its components, whether the apparent movement of change is in the display, the sign structure itself, or any other component of the sign. This includes a display that incorporates a technology or method allowing the sign face to change the image without having to physically or mechanically replace the sign face or its components. This also includes any rotating, revolving, moving, flashing, shimmering, blinking or animated display and any display that incorporates rotating panels, LED lights manipulated through digital input, “digital ink” or any other method or technology that allows the sign face to present a series of images or displays.
ELECTRICAL SIGN. A sign or sign structure in which electrical wiring, connections, or fixtures are used.
ELECTRONIC VARIABLE MESSAGE SIGN. A sign whose message may be changed at intervals by electronic process or remote control and having a constant light level.
ERECT. Activity of constructing, building, raising, assembling, placing, affixing, attaching, creating, painting, drawing or any other ways of bringing into being or establishing.
FACADE. The entire building front including the parapet.
FACE OF SIGN. The area of a sign on which the copy is placed.
FEATHER FLAG SIGN. A lightweight, portable advertising medium, mounted on a pole, which resembles a sail.
FLAG. Any fabric or similar lightweight material attached at 1 end of the material, usually to a staff or pole, so as to allow movement of the material by atmospheric changes and which contains distinctive colors, patterns, symbols, emblems, insignia, or other symbolic devices.
FRONTAGE. The length of the property line of any 1 premise along a public right-of-way on which it borders.
GOVERNMENT SIGN. Any temporary or permanent sign erected and maintained by the city, county, state, or federal government for traffic direction or for designation of or direction to any school, hospital, historical site, or public service, property, or facility.
HEIGHT (OF A SIGN). The vertical distance measured from the highest point of the sign, excluding decorative embellishments, to the grade of the adjacent street or the surface grade beneath the sign, whichever is less.
IDENTIFICATION SIGN. An on-premise identification sign giving the name, address, and/or occupation of an occupant or group of occupants. IDENTIFICATION SIGNS may be illuminated.
ILLUMINATED SIGN. Any sign which contains an element designed to emanate artificial light internally or externally.
INCIDENTAL SIGN. A small sign, emblem, or decal informing the public of goods, facilities, or services available on the premises, e.g., a credit card sign or a sign indicating hours of business. Maximum size is 4 square feet.
INTERIOR SIGN. A sign which is located within the interior of any building, or within an enclosed lobby or court of any building, and a sign for and located within the inner or outer body, court, entrance of any theater.
LEGALLY ESTABLISHED NONCONFORMING SIGN. Any sign and its support structure lawfully erected prior to the effective date of this subchapter which fails to conform to the requirements of this subchapter. A sign which was erected in accordance with a variance granted prior to the adoption of this subchapter and which does not comply with this subchapter shall be deemed to be a legal nonconforming sign. A sign which was unlawfully erected shall be deemed to be an illegal sign.
MAINTENANCE. The cleaning, painting, repair, or replacement of defective parts of a sign in a manner that does not alter the basic copy, design, or structure of the sign.
MANSARD. A roof having 2 slopes on all sides with the lower slope steeper than the upper one.
MARQUEE. Any permanent roof-like structure projecting beyond a building facade or extending along and projecting beyond the wall of that building, generally designed and constructed to provide protection from the weather.
MARQUEE SIGN. Any building sign painted, mounted, constructed or attached in any manner, on a marquee.
MONUMENT SIGN. A sign where the extent of the sign surface is attached to the ground or a foundation in the ground; and where there are no poles, braces, or other visible means of support other than attachment to the ground.
MULTI-TENANT BUILDING. A building that houses more than 1 tenant or use.
NAMEPLATE. A non-electric on-premise identification sign giving only the name, address, and/or occupation of an occupant or group of occupants.
NON-COMMERCIAL SPEECH. Dissemination of messages not classified as commercial speech which include, but are not limited to, messages concerning political, religious, social, ideological, public service and information topics.
OFF-PREMISE SIGN. A commercial speech sign which directs the attention of the public to a business, activity conducted, or product sold or offered at a location not on the same lot where the sign is located. For purposes of this subchapter, easements and other appurtenances shall be considered to be outside such lot and any sign located or proposed to be located in an easement or other appurtenance shall be considered an OFF-PREMISE SIGN.
ON-PREMISE SIGN. A sign which identifies or advertises an establishment, person, activity, goods, products or services located on the premises where the sign is installed.
OWNER. In the case of a lot, the legal owner of the lot as officially recorded by Hubbard County, and including fee owners, contract for deed purchasers and ground lessees. For the purposes of this subchapter, the owner of property on which a sign is located is presumed to be the owner of the sign unless facts to the contrary are officially recorded or otherwise brought to the attention of the Administrator, e.g., a sign leased from a sign company.
PAINTED WALL SIGN. Any sign which is applied with paint or similar substance on the surface of a wall.
PERSON. Any individual, corporation, association, firm, partnership, or similarly defined interest.
POINT OF PURCHASE DISPLAY. Advertising of a retail item accompanying its display, e.g., an advertisement on a product dispenser, tire display, and the like.
POLE SIGN. See PYLON SIGN.
PORTABLE SIGN. Any sign which is manifestly designed to be transported, including by trailer or on its own wheels, even though the wheels of such sign may be removed and the remaining chassis or support is converted to another sign or attached temporarily or permanently to the ground since this characteristic is based on the design of such sign.
PREMISE. A parcel of land with its appurtenances and buildings which, because of its unity of use, may be regarded as the smallest conveyable unit of real estate.
PROJECTING SIGN. Any sign which is affixed to a building or wall in such a manner that its leading edge extends more than 2 feet beyond the surface of such building or wall face.
PUBLIC STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY. The entire right-of-way of any public street.
PYLON SIGN. Any freestanding sign which has its supportive structure(s) anchored in the ground and which has a sign face elevated above ground level by pole(s) or beam(s) and with the area below the sign face open.
ROOF SIGN. Any sign erected and constructed wholly on and above the roof of a building, supported by the roof structure, and extending vertically above the highest portion of the roof.
SANDWICH SIGN. Two sign faces that are back to back and are connected together at the top and apart from each other at the bottom.
SCENIC BYWAY. Any portion of Highway 34 East and West and Highway 71 North throughout the city.
SCROLL OR TRAVEL. A message transition where the message that is leaving or appearing appears to move vertically or horizontally across the display surface.
SIGHT TRIANGLE. A triangular area formed at the intersection of any street right-of-way lines by a straight line drawn between the right-of-way lines at a distance along each line of 30 feet from their point of intersection.
SIGN. Any letter, word or symbol, poster, picture, statuary, reading matter or representation in the nature of advertisement, announcement, message or visual communication, whether painted, posted, printed, affixed or constructed, including all associated brackets, braces, supports, wires and structures, which is displayed for information or communicative purposes.
SIGN, AREA OF. Includes the space inside a continuous line drawn around and enclosing all letters, designs, and background materials exclusive of border, trim and structural supports. For the purpose of calculating the sign area of multiple-faced or back-to-back signs the stipulated maximum sign area shall refer to a single face.
SUBDIVISION IDENTIFICATION SIGN. A sign identifying a recognized subdivision, condominium complex, or residential development.
SUSPENDED SIGN. Any building sign that is suspended from the underside of a horizontal plane surface and is connected to this surface.
TEMPORARY SIGN. Any sign, balloon, banner, blimp, flag, pylon, pennant, poster, reader board or advertising display which is intended to be displayed for a period of time not to exceed 3 weeks per permit period. Signs other than temporary signs shall be considered permanent signs.
TOTAL SITE SIGNAGE. The maximum permitted combined area of all free standing and wall identification signs allowed on a specific property.
WALL SIGN. A sign attached essentially parallel to and extending not more than 24 inches from the wall of a building with no copy on the sides or edges. This definition includes painted, individual letter, and cabinet signs, and signs on a mansard.
WINDOW SIGN. Any building sign, pictures, symbol, or combination thereof, designed to communicate information about an activity, business, commodity, event, sale, or service, that is placed inside a window or upon the window pane or glass and is visible from the exterior of the window.
ZONING LOT. One or more lots which are used for a single principal use or planned unit development.
(Ord. 494, passed 9-25-2007; Am. Ord. 542, passed 4-23-2013)