A. This chapter establishes regulations for the erection, maintenance and use of signs and other exterior advertising media within the City to:
1. Safeguard and enhance property values;
2. Protect public and private investment in buildings and open spaces;
3. Improve the appearance of the City as a place in which to live and work, and as an attraction to nonresidents who come to visit or trade;
4. Encourage sound signing practices as an aid to business, and to provide information to the traveling public;
5. Prevent excessive and confusing sign displays;
6. Reduce hazards to motorists and pedestrians; and
7. Promote the public health, safety, and general welfare.
B. The City has a reputation as a community of natural beauty rendering it highly attractive to visitors and potential future residents. The City Council has determined that the natural, traditional and manmade advantages of the City substantially contribute to the residential character of the community and to its aesthetic, cultural and economic values. The unregulated and uncontrolled erection and maintenance of signs, billboards and advertising structures results in a gaudy and garish atmosphere that would be out of harmony with the fine attributes and excellent character of the City. The City Council further determines that the lack of regulation and control of signs results in costly and unfair competition for the public eye through the proliferation, increased height, and size of signs, and that the safety of the general public requires that the structural elements and location of signs be regulated.
C. The reasonable and proper regulation of signs and advertising structures is conducive to the fullest enjoyment by the people of the community of natural and traditional advantages, and necessary to prevent depreciation of property values, and the regulation of signs results in a more fair and equitable public exposure of the advertising displays of all businesses, large and small, and that the appearance of the commercial areas will be protected.
D. It is also the intent of this chapter to recognize that the eventual elimination of existing signs that do not conform with the provisions of this chapter is as important as is prohibiting new signs that would violate these regulations. (Ord. 2552 § 1, 2004)