1105.02 DEFINITIONS AND TERMS.
(1) Air-Activated Sign: A sign all or any part of which is designed to be moved by action of the air to attract attention, including signs with moveable colored disks but excluding flags, banners, or festoons.
(2) Attention-Getting Display: A visual display such as festoons that is not a sign but that is designed and/or used to attract attention to a premise or a sign.
(3) Awning: An awning with advertisement lettering/message placed on canvas, or other approved flexible material, with a structural metal frame that is attached to a building.
(4) Back-to-Back Sign: A sign consisting of two sign facings oriented in opposite directions with not more than two faces per sign facing.
(5) Banner Sign: A sign displayed on flexible lightweight material, enclosed or not enclosed in a rigid frame.
(6) Balloon Sign: An inflated object that constitutes a sign, the largest dimension of which exceeds 3 feet. Balloon signs do not include aircraft like hot air balloons or dirigibles displaying messages.
(7) Billboard: See Separate Use Sign.
(8) Changeable Copy Area: A sign or part thereof designed for frequent and easy changes of message copy, other than changing copy areas, such as message boards with removable letters or frames designed for changes of placards but not including surfaces to which bills or posters are attached.
(9) Changing Copy Area: A message copy or other display on a sign that is capable of being periodically changed electronically or electrically, such as a time and temperature sign or electronic message center.
(10) Directional Sign: A sign erected for the convenience of the public, such as for directing traffic movement, parking, or identifying restrooms, public telephones, walkways and other similar features or facilities, and bearing no advertising message.
(11) Digital Sign: See Electronic Message Center.
(12) Double Faced Sign: An off-premise sign with two adjacent faces oriented in the same direction and not more than ten (10) feet apart at the nearest point between the two faces.
(13) Electronic Message Center (or Digital Sign): A message copy or other sign display made up of small internally illuminated components that change the display periodically. See also Flashing Sign.
(14) Event Sign: A sign displayed for a continuous period of no more than 30 days no more than once in any calendar year.
(15) Festoons: A string of light bulbs not shaded or hooded to prevent their being visible at the boundary of the lot or building site or of ribbons, tinsel, streamers, pinwheels, pennants, or similar devices that is hung in the open.
(16) Flashing Sign: A sign that displays intermittent or flashing light, whether from internal or external light sources. Signs that produce moving or animated messages or images by use of intermittent light are not considered Flashing Signs.
(17) Freestanding Sign: A sign erected on framework not connected to any structure supported and affixed by one or more uprights or braces in or upon the ground.
(18) Government/Utility Sign: A sign maintained by a government body or a utility for legal, regulatory, public safety, historical or wayfinding purposes, including traffic control devices or pavement markings; legal notices; warnings of hazards; historical markers; veterans memorials; directional signs to places of public interest; or
Any sign or exterior display a private party is required to display by government order or regulation with a size or other characteristic regulated herein that do not exceed those required for compliance with such order or regulation. Such Government/Utility Signs include construction signs for government-assisted projects and signs required by legislation on access for the disabled, or
The official flag or seal of any nation or unit of government or any reproduction thereof displayed by the owner or occupant of a property unaccompanied by other graphic matter, words, or symbols not otherwise qualifying under this definition.
(19) Internally Illuminated Sign: A sign illuminated by an enclosed lighting source, the light from which does not extend beyond the face or message area of the sign, except indirectly through the face or surface thereof. Cabinet signs are considered internally illuminated but backlit characters mounted on wall surfaces are not.
(20) Landmark Sign: An older sign designated by City Council that, by virtue of exhibiting special design qualities characteristic of an earlier era, merits special regulatory treatment because of its current rarity or unusual significance.
(21) Moving Sign: A sign other than multi-prism sign that has one or more visible parts designed to move for the purpose of attracting attention.
(22) Multi-Prism Sign: A sign, the message of which is periodically changed by multiple rotating panels each containing part of alternate messages.
(23) ODOT-Regulated Sign: A sign regulated by the Ohio Department of Transportation under Chapter 5516 of the Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 5501:2-2 of the Ohio Administrative Code, both as amended, and/or any other statutes or regulations.
(24) Permanent Sign: A sign that is not a Temporary Sign, as defined herein.
(25) Portable Sign: Any Sign that is moveable and not permanently attached to the ground or to a structure or another sign permanently attached to the ground. Portable signs include trailer signs, as defined herein.
(26) Projecting Sign: A sign displayed on or from a wall of a building or a projection there from, other than a canopy or awning, where the sign or the building projection extends more than twelve (12) inches from the face of the wall.
(27) Roof Sign: Any sign that projects above the parapet or the highest point of the roof, whichever is higher, of that portion of a building on which it is mounted. Signs mounted upon vertical roof surfaces, such as mansard roofs, and signs displayed on pitched roofs, that do not extend higher than the peak, are not considered roof signs.
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(28) Separate Use Sign or Billboard: A sign, including the supporting sign structure, which is visible from a street or highway and conveys a message not associated with the premises and/or property upon which the sign is located.
(29) Sign: Any visual or graphic device that is designed and/or used to communicate - usually with words, numbers, characters and/or proprietary symbols, as defined herein - a verbal and/or visual message that is at least partially visible from ground level beyond the lot or building site in which the sign is displayed.
Such a device shall be considered a sign whether or not a message is currently displayed thereupon. Sign shells, embellishments and support structures shall be considered part of the sign. Signs shall, irrespective of message content, be considered Accessory Uses to Principal Uses on their sites.
(30) Sign Area: The total exposed surface on the largest single sign face normally visible at any one time, including sign background but excluding purely decorative embellishments and any support structure not part of the sign proper.
Only a single side of a two-sided sign is counted as sign area. The area of an internally illuminated sign is the area within the cabinet.
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The area of a sign consisting solely of individual letters or symbols with no added background or decoration against a building wall or other surface that does not serve solely or principally as a sign, such as an awning or canopy, shall be the sum of the areas within envelopes completely enclosing each separate letter or symbol, excluding punctuation, or enclosing each attached group thereof.
The sign area of a sign that displays more around the sign (such as a spherical sign or balloon) shall include only such sign area as may be visible at any one time from a point on the ground in an adjacent street within 200 feet of the sign. The Building Inspector may require a sign user to submit information that in his or her judgment establishes the part of the sign that is so visible.
(31) Sign Clearance: The smallest vertical distance to grade (or to the surface of the roof in the case of a sign mounted upon or over a roof) from the lowest edge of a sign extending over that grade or surface, including embellishments but excluding any pole or support structure attached to the ground or roof.
(32) Sign Content: The advertising, informational, or other message directly conveyed by the characters and symbols used on a sign. Messages conveyed indirectly by the dimensions, media, colors, design, materials, sign form, lighting, positioning, movement or similar characteristics of a sign - such as emotional messages or psychological effects - are not considered content.
(33) Sign Face: The surface of a sign upon, against or through which the message is displayed.
(34) Sign Height: The vertical distance from the highest part of a sign, including support structures and embellishments, to the mean average grade of the land - or, for roof signs, the level of the roof - abutting the base of or directly below the sign.
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Except where the curb level of the street from which the sign is intended to be viewed is higher than the specified grade of the land, the difference between the two shall not be counted in determining sign height. In the case of a sign intended to be viewed from more than one street, the mean average curb levels of the applicable streets shall be used.
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(35) Sign Panel: A display surface of a sign that is visually distinct from every other sign surface in its vicinity by virtue of appearing on a separate substrate or being separated from such other surfaces by open space. Sides of a two sided sign shall not be considered as separate panels so long as both are of identical shape, dimensions, and positioning and their backs are separated by 10 feet or less. Separate cabinets shall be considered separate panels.
(36) Surface Signs: A Surface Sign is a sign mounted, applied, or otherwise displayed on, and generally following the contours of, the surface of a structure or object or part or projection thereof, the function of which is not primarily that of a sign. Surface Signs are commonly displayed on walls, windows, awnings, doors, vending machines, and canopies.
(38) Trailer Sign: A portable sign mounted on a trailer or on a similar moveable support with or without wheels.
(39) Vehicle Sign: A sign on or within a motor vehicle, boat, aircraft, recreational vehicle, or similar vehicle that appears to have been parked for the primary purpose of displaying the sign. Vehicle signs do not include:
A. Trailer signs, as defined herein.
B. Lettering permanently painted on or attached to on aircraft, boats, or commercial vehicles, that are operating or parked during the normal course of business.
C. Signs on buses or taxicabs that are operating or parked during the normal course of business.
D. Bumper stickers.
E. Placards of 3 square feet or less placed in window of vehicles.
(40) Wall Signs: See Surface Signs.
(Ord. 09-165. Passed 6-24-09.)