Signs can obstruct views, distract, or confuse motorists, displace alternative uses for land, lead to visual clutter, harm community aesthetics, and pose other problems that call for regulation. The City has significant and compelling interests in reducing these harms; these regulations are designed to be content-neutral and narrowly tailored to these interests, and to leave ample alternative channels of communication available. The purpose of this chapter is the following:
(a) To protect the general health, safety and welfare by:
(1) Protecting and encouraging a more attractive economic and business climate;
(2) Providing an instrument for protecting the physical appearance of the community; and
(3) Encouraging high quality, effective outdoor graphics for the purposes of navigation, information, and identification.
(b) To encourage the proper development and use of signage and to permit and regulate signs in such a way as to support and complement land-use objectives set forth in the Zoning Ordinance.
(c) To provide businesses in the City with equitable sign standards in accord with fair competition and aesthetic standards acceptable to the community, to provide the public with a safe and effective means of locating businesses, services and points of interest within the city, and to provide for a safe vehicular and pedestrian traffic environment.
(d) In addition to protecting from distractions and obstructions that can contribute to traffic and pedestrian accidents, it is the intent of these regulations to control and regulate signs to prevent them from negatively impacting adjacent properties and the community.
(e) It is the City’s intent to comply with all requirements of the U.S. and Ohio constitutions and statutes requiring that sign regulations remain content neutral.
(Ord. 36-2023. Passed 6-17-24.)