(a) Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to promote and protect the public health, safety and general welfare by providing for the regulation of the use, location and size of signs within the Village. This section is intended to provide for: the protection of property values; to maintain and enhance the Village's natural and man-made environment; to encourage an attractive and healthy economic environment; to minimize the confusion, unsightliness, and self-defeating consequences of the use of an excessive number of signs or signs of excessive size; and, to enable the fair and consistent enforcement of these sign regulations. It is further intended to reduce sign or advertising distractions and obstructions that may contribute to traffic accidents.
(b) Objectives. It is further the purpose of this chapter to achieve the following signage objectives:
(1) To promote clarity and effectiveness in sign communications, by encouraging signs of high quality graphic design that are visible, legible and readable in the circumstances in which they are seen; and
(2) To ensure among businesses an equitable distribution of the right to identify a place or activity with a visible on-premises sign by preventing signs which block other signs and cause confusing visual clutter.
(3) To protect the general public from damage and injury caused by the distractions, hazards and obstructions caused by signs of excessive size or number.
(4) To preserve the value of property by assuring the compatibility of signs with surrounding land uses.
(c) Findings. The purposes and objectives stated above are based on the following findings concerning signs:
(1) That businesses and other institutions located along public and private streets have a need to identify themselves and their activities to motorists and pedestrians by means of signs; and
(2) That excessive signs, with respect to size and number, create dangerous traffic conditions, intrude on motorist and pedestrian enjoyment of the natural and man-made beauty of the Village, and as such, are detrimental to the public health, safety and general welfare of the Village.
(Ord. 2013-01. Passed 2-5-13.)