1105.08 BILLBOARDS: SEPARATE USE SIGNS.
(In permitted zoning districts, see the City of Youngstown Zoning Ordinance 93-637)
(a) Structure Placement.
(1) No billboard structure shall be placed or erected closer than one thousand (1000) feet of any other billboard structure.
(2) No outdoor advertising structure or billboard shall be erected within a residential district or within one hundred (100) feet of any residential district if visible from such district and designed to face therein.
(3) No outdoor advertising sign or billboard shall be erected within one hundred fifty (150) feet of the nearest property line of any public park, playground, municipal, county, state or federal public or semi-public building, or within one hundred fifty (150) feet of any park-drive, or parkway, nor shall any property within such area be leased, rented or sold for such use.
(4) No billboard or separate use sign shall be placed on the roof of any building.
(5) On corner lots, no billboard shall be erected or project within the triangular area formed by the street right-of-way lines of such corner lot and a diagonal line joining said lines at a point thirty-five (35) feet from the point of intersection of such right-of-way lines.
(6) Outdoor advertising signs shall be subject to the same yard area requirements established for the zoning district in which such sign is to be located.
(b) Physical Dimensions, Illumination, and Maintenance of Separate Use Signs.
(1) No outdoor advertising structure shall contain over one sign per facing or exceed the length of fifty-two (52) feet.
(2) The maximum height of a billboard shall not exceed seventy-five (75) feet in the B-1 or B-2 districts or forty (40) feet in the B-3 district, as specified in the City of Youngstown Zoning Ordinance.
(3) Illumination of billboards shall be installed so as to direct the light on the sign and to minimize glare upon a public street or adjoining property.
(4) Landscaping is required to screen the base of the pole or foundation for the billboard, and lots are to be maintained with suitable ground cover, except where structures are located in a paved area.
(5) All separate use signs must adhere to the structural requirements identified in the current Ohio Building Code.
(c) Electronic message centers or Off-Premise Digital Signs.
(1) Sign Operators installing, testing, or maintaining electronic message centers shall comply with the following requirements:
A. The dwell time, defined as the interval of change between each individual message, shall be at least ten (10) seconds, and a change of message must be accomplished within one (1) second or less. The dwell time shall not include the one (1) second or less required to change a message.
B. The electronic message center shall contain a default mechanism that will freeze the sign in one position if a malfunction occurs.
C. The electronic message center may not display light of such intensity or brilliance to cause glare or otherwise impair the vision of the driver, or result in a nuisance to the driver.
1. Digital sign light intensity exceeding the following intensity levels (nits) constitutes "excessive intensity or brilliance":
INTENSITY LEVELS (NITS) | ||
COLOR | DAYTIME | NIGHTTIME |
Red Only | 3,000 | 1,000 |
Green Only | 6,000 | 2,000 |
Amber Only | 4,500 | 1,500 |
Full Color | 7,000 | 2,500 |
2. Prior to the issuance of a permit, the applicant shall provide written certification from the sign manufacturer that the light intensity has been factory pre-set not to exceed 7,000 NITS and that the intensity level is projected from end-user manipulation by password-protected software or other method as deemed appropriate by the Building Inspector or Zoning Specialist.
D. Digital signs shall not be configured to resemble a warning or danger signal or to cause a driver to mistake the advertisement for a warning or danger signal.
E. Size and location requirements for digital signs are the same as those for billboards as described in this section.
F. Due to the increased amount of distraction caused by electronic message centers, billboard operators shall be required to remove four (4) times the surface area of the proposed sign in existing static billboards prior to installing a new digital sign.
G. Only one (1) digital sign face shall be allowed per structure.
(Ord. 09-165. Passed 6-24-09.)