The city council hereby finds and declares:
A. The primary intended use of the streets and sidewalks of the city is the movement of people and goods. Generally speaking, the city considers its streets and the real property interests therein to be a valuable asset, one that it intends to control by regulation and will not allow to be appropriated by private enterprise.
B. The city has an obligation to the general public to ensure reasonably unobstructed passage over the public right of way in a clean, safe and orderly manner.
C. The city has an obligation to protect the health and safety of the public, and to protect persons, including minors, from unwilling exposure to explicit sexual material.
D. Inappropriately located news racks can pose a significant hazard and annoyance to pedestrians, abutting landowners, and vehicles, and can interfere with the maintenance of public improvements.
E. The uncontrolled construction and placement of news racks unreasonably interferes with the public's right to safe and unobstructed passage and tends to physically and visually clutter the public rights of way. The placement, construction and maintenance of news racks must be reviewed in relationship to proximity, design and use of other existing or proposed street improvements including, but not limited to, signs and lampposts, parking meters, bus shelters and benches, planters, telephone booths, traffic devices, bus stop areas, loading zones, and landscaped setbacks.
F. The city's central business district and an expanded area surrounding it, and the Sugar House business district are particularly congested and important areas. The aesthetically pleasing and functional design and regulation of the use of streets and sidewalks in the expanded central business district and Sugar House business district are extremely important in developing and maintaining order for the public good.
G. The city has gone to great lengths in its street improvement program within the expanded central business district and the Sugar House business district to create an aesthetically pleasing, safe, efficient and harmonious streetscape. Outdoor news racks, as part of the streetscape furniture, should be designed, constructed and maintained to carry out those objectives.
H. Historically, the use of the streets for commercial enterprise has been precluded to preserve the streets for public purposes and to avoid the appropriation of public property or the creation of unfair economic advantage to businesses competing in the business district on private property. Distribution of newspapers has been a notable, but limited, exception allowed in business districts to accommodate convenient dissemination of the news to encourage an informed citizenry, even though such distribution from news racks competes with other retail or subscription methods. Use of city owned property and public rights of way in commercial districts where subscription is less common should not be absolutely denied, but such use is subordinate to the property's use for public purposes. This private use of the city owned property and public rights of way, afforded certain constitutional protection under freedom of expression, is being regulated to ensure subordination to public purposes and protection to the city and its residents.
I. Daily newspapers of general circulation provide the most comprehensive and detailed information regarding local advertising and state and local news. This information is of greatest interest to those in the expanded central business district and Sugar House business district, and becomes stale on a daily basis requiring rapid turnover.
J. The above strong compelling governmental interests compete against public interests in freedom of expression and the private commercial interests of distributors. The city desires, in the time, place and manner provisions codified in this chapter, to balance those interests. (Ord. 7-15, 2015)