(A) Purpose. The sign regulations of this section are intended to achieve balance among the following differing, and at times, competing goals:
(1) To support the desired character of Will County, as expressed in adopted plans, policies and regulations;
(2) To promote an attractive visual environment;
(3) To encourage the effective use of signs as a means of communication for businesses, organizations and individuals;
(4) To provide a means of way-finding, thus reducing traffic confusion and congestion;
(5) To provide for adequate business identification, advertising, and communication;
(6) To prohibit signs of such excessive size and number that they obscure one another to the detriment of the economic and social well-being of county and its residents, property owners and visitors;
(7) To protect the safety and welfare of the public by minimizing the hazards to pedestrian and vehicular traffic;
(8) To differentiate among those signs that, because of their location, may distract drivers on public streets and those that may provide information to them while they remain in their cars but out of active traffic;
(9) To minimize the possible adverse effects of signs on nearby public and private property; and
(10) To provide broadly for the expression of individual opinions through the use of signs on private property.
(B) Scope and applicability.
(1) All signs within unincorporated Will County are subject to the regulations of this section and all other applicable provisions of this zoning ordinance.
(2) ILCS Ch. 225, Act 440, §§ 1 et seq. is an act that relates to the control of the erection and maintenance of billboards and other outdoor advertising devices on lands adjacent to the Federal-Aid Primary System and the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways in Illinois. Consequently, the ordinance is applicable and enforceable only in commercially and industrially zoned areas along these roads and highways and in all zones along all other roads and highways in Will County.
(C) Content neutrality. Any sign allowed under this section may contain, in lieu of any other message or copy, any lawful noncommercial message that does not direct attention to a business operated for profit, or to a product, commodity or service for sale or lease, or to any other commercial interest or activity, so long as the sign complies with the size, height, area and other requirements of this article.
(Ord. effective 10-1-2012)