§ 194.169 RURAL: SIGNS.

   (A)   General.

      (1)   The purpose of this section is:

         (a)   To encourage the effective use of signs as a means of communication in the county;

         (b)   To maintain and enhance the aesthetic environment and the county’s ability to attract sources of economic development and growth;

         (c)   To minimize the possible adverse effect of signs on nearby public and private property; and

         (d)   To enable the fair and consistent enforcement of these sign restrictions.

      (2)   A sign may be located only in conformance with the requirements of this chapter. Signs and advertising structures may be permitted in the districts where such uses are permitted after having secured an ILP approving the proposed sign except when not required by this section.

   (B)   State requirements. Signs and advertising structures are also subject to the requirements of the Highway Advertising Control Act of 1967, as amended. All signs and advertising structures shall conform to the provisions of said Act. Should this chapter and the Act be in conflict, the requirements of the more restrictive shall apply.

   (C)   Local requirements. Signs and advertising structures may be subject to local ordinances of incorporated cities or towns in the jurisdictional area of this chapter. Should the two be in conflict, the requirements of the more restrictive shall apply.

   (D)   Signs allowed with and without permits. Signs shall be allowed on private property in accordance with Table 16 , Rural Sign Regulations. The letter “X” means such sign is allowed without a permit in the appropriate zoning districts. The letter “P” means such sign is allowed only with permit approval in the appropriate zoning districts. Special conditions may apply in some cases. If an “X” or “P” is not present, such sign is not allowed in the zoning district under any circumstances. Although permitted under the previous paragraph, a sign designed by a “P” or “X” in Table 16, Rural Sign Regulations, shall be allowed only if:

      (1)   The sum of the area of all signs on the lot conforms to the maximum permitted sign area (as determined by the formula for the zoning district in which the lot is located);

      (2)   The size, location and number of signs on the lot conform with the requirements which establishes permitted sign dimensions by sign type and with any additional limitations; and

      (3)   The characteristics of the sign conform with the requirements and to any additional limitations listed in Table 16.

   (E)   Design, construction and maintenance of signs. All signs shall be designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the following standards.

      (1)   All signs shall comply with applicable provisions of the Uniform Building Code and the Electrical Code.

      (2)   Except for banners, flags and window signs conforming in all respects with the requirements of this chapter, all signs shall be constructed of permanent materials and shall be permanently attached to the ground, building or another structure by direct attachment to a rigid wall, frame or structure.

      (3)   All signs shall be maintained in good structural condition, in compliance with all Building and Electrical Codes and in conformance with this chapter.

   (F)   Permits for signs in the public right-of-way. No signs shall be allowed in the public right-of-way, except for the following.

      (1)   Permanent signs. Permanent signs shall be in accordance with the conditions of the table included in this chapter regarding, Sign Regulations. Such permitted permanent signs include public signs erected by or on behalf of a governmental body, public transit company or public utility.

      (2)   Emergency signs. Emergency warning signs erected by a governmental agency, a public utility company or a contractor doing authorized or permitted work within the public right-of-way.

      (3)   Other signs forfeited. Any sign installed or placed on public property, except in conformance with the requirements of this section, shall be forfeited to the public and subject to confiscation. In addition to other remedies hereunder, the county shall have the right to recover from the owner or person placing such a sign the full costs of removal and disposal of such sign.

   (G)   Signs exempt from regulation under this chapter. The following signs shall be exempt from regulation under this chapter:

      (1)   Any public notice or warning required by a valid and applicable federal, state or local law, regulation or ordinance;

      (2)   Any sign inside a building, not attached to a window or door, that is not legible from a distance of more than three feet beyond the lot line of the lot or parcel on which such sign is located;

      (3)   Works of art that do not include a commercial message;

      (4)   Commercial murals on barns, silos and the like;

      (5)   Holiday lights and decorations with no commercial message; and

      (6)   Traffic-control signs on private property, such as stop, yield and similar signs, the face of which meet the Department of Transportation standards and which contain no commercial message of any sort;

      (7)   Temporary campaign signs displayed for not more than one month before and two days after said election is held.

   (H)   Signs prohibited under this chapter. All signs not expressly permitted under this chapter or exempt from regulation hereunder are prohibited in the county. Such signs include, but are not limited to, beacons, pennants, strings of lights not permanently mounted to a rigid background, and inflatable signs and tethered balloons.

   (I)   General permit and inspection procedures. The following shall be procedure for locating or modification of all sign permits under this chapter.

      (1)   Applications. All applications for sign permits shall be submitted on an application form published by the town. One application may include multiple signs on the same lot, however a separate permit will be issued and a separate fee will be collected for each sign.

      (2)   Site plan.

         (a)   For any lot on which the owner proposes to erect one or more signs requiring a permit, the owner shall submit a site plan containing the following:

            1.   A plot plan of the lot, at such scale as may be reasonably required;

            2.   Location of buildings, parking lots, driveways and landscaped areas on such lot;

            3.   Computation of the total sign area for all signs, the height of each sign and the number of signs; and

            4.   An accurate indication on the plot plans of the proposed location of each present and future sign of any type, whether requiring a permit or not. Incidental signs need not be shown.

         (b)   Upon the issuance of a permit, the applicant shall provide all applicable fees, as established in the town’s fee schedule.

      (3)   Computations.

         (a)   Computation of area of individual signs. The area of a sign face (which is also the sign area of a wall sign or other sign with only one face) shall be computed by means of the smallest shape that will encompass the extreme limits of the sign, but not including any supporting framework, bracing or decorative fence or wall when such fence or wall otherwise meets zoning ordinance regulations and is clearly incidental to the display itself.

         (b)   Computation of area of multifaceted signs. The sign area for a sign with more than one face shall be computed by adding together the area of all sign faces.

         (c)   Computation of height. The height of a sign shall be computed as the distance from the base of the sign at normal grade to the top of the highest attached component of the sign. Normal grade shall be construed to be the lower of existing grade prior to construction or the newly established grade after construction, exclusive of any filling, berming, mounding or excavating solely for the purpose of locating the sign. In cases in which the normal grade cannot reasonably be determined, sign height shall be computed on the assumption that the elevation of the normal grade at the base of the sign is equal to the elevation of the nearest point of the crown of a public street or the grade of the land at the principal entrance to the principal structure on the zone lot, whichever is lower.

         (d)   Computation of maximum total permitted sign area for a lot. The permitted sum of the area of all individual signs on a lot shall be computed by applying the formula contained in the Table 16 to the road frontage, building frontage, or wall area, as appropriate, for the zoning district in which the lot is located. Lots fronting on two or more streets are allowed the permitted sign area for each street frontage. However, the total sign area that is oriented toward a particular street may not exceed the portion of the lot’s total sign area allocation that is derived from the lot, building or wall area frontage on that street.

      (4)   Inspection. A final inspection of each permit for a new sign or modification of an existing sign will be performed six months after the issuance of such permit or earlier if owner requests. If the construction is not substantially complete at the time of inspection, the permit shall lapse and become void. If the construction is complete and in full compliance with this chapter and with the building and electrical codes, a permanent label identifying the sign and permit number shall be affixed. If the construction is substantially complete but not in full compliance with this chapter and applicable codes, the owner or applicant shall be notified of the deficiencies and shall be given an additional 30 days from the date of inspection for the deficiencies to be corrected. If the deficiencies are not corrected by such date, the permit shall lapse. If the construction is then complete, a permanent label identifying the sign(s) and applicable permit number shall be affixed.

      (5)   Lapse of a sign permit. A continuing sign permit shall lapse automatically if the business or activity on the premises is discontinued for a period of 180 days or more.

   (J)   Non-conforming signs and signs without permits. Except as otherwise provided herein, the owner of any lot or other premises on which exists a sign that does not conform with the requirements of this chapter, a previous applicable ordinance or for which there is no valid sign permit issued under a previous ordinance shall be obligated to remove such sign.

      (1)   Non-conforming existing signs, permits, and terms. A sign that would be permitted under this chapter only with a sign permit, but which was in existence at the time this chapter went into effect, and which was constructed in accordance with the ordinance and other applicable laws in effect on the date of its construction, but which by reason of its size, height, location, design or construction is not in conformance with the requirements of this chapter, shall be classified as a non-conforming sign. A change in the information on the face of an existing non-conforming sign is allowed. However, any non- conforming sign shall either be eliminated or made to conform to the requirements of this section upon proposed expansion of the sign or if the face area of such sign has been damaged beyond 50%.

      (2)   Lapse of permit for a non-conforming sign. A permit for a non-conforming sign shall lapse and become void under the same circumstances as those under which any other sign permit may lapse and become void.

   (K)   Violations. Any of the following shall be a violation of this chapter and shall be subject to the enforcement remedies and penalties provided by this chapter, and by state or federal law:

      (1)   To install, create, erect or maintain any sign in a way that is inconsistent with any plan or permit governing such sign or the zone lot on which the sign is located;

      (2)   To install, create, erect or maintain any sign requiring a permit without such a permit;

      (3)   To install, create, erect or maintain any sign in a way that is inconsistent with any plan or permit governing such sign or the zone lot on which the sign is located;

      (4)   To fail to remove any sign that is installed, created, erected or maintained in violation of this chapter, or for which the sign permit has lapsed; or

      (5)   To continue any such violation. Each such day of a continued violation shall be considered a separate violation when applying the penalty portions of this chapter.

   (L)   Enforcement and remedies. A violation of this section of the chapter shall be considered a violation of this chapter and shall be enforced accordingly.

Table 16: Rural Sign Regulations
		AG	R-1	R-2	R-3, R-4, MF	LB	PB	GB, UB	AB	AZ, I-1, I-2
Total Number of all types of Signs Permitted
	Per lot	1	1	1		1
	Per lot per linear feet of road				1/200		1/100	1/200	1/200	1/200
Lighting
	Animated, exposed bulbs or internal/external illumination					X	P (k)	P	P	P
Regulations for On-Premises Freestanding Signs
Regulations	Maximum combined area	6	6	6	12	40	40	80	160	80
	Maximum height (feet)	5	5	5	5	12	12	12	36	12
	Setback (feet) (j)	2	2	2	2	2	5 (h)	5 (h)	10	10
Type	Residential (a)	P	P	P	P
	Incidental (b)				X (b)	X	X (b)	X	X	X
	Other	P			P	P	P	P	P	P
Regulations for Off-Premises Freestanding Signs
	Permitted districts (i)							P	P	P
	Maximum area (per side)							100	200	150
	Maximum height (feet)							35	5	35
	Setback (feet) (j)							20	20	20
Regulations for All Other Signs
Regulations	Maximum area (sq. ft.)	2	2	2	2	10
	Maximum wall area (%)						10%	15%	15%	20%
Type	Banner (b), canopy						P	P	P	P
	Incidental (b)				X (e)	X	X (b)	X	X	X
	Marquee (f), roof-integral, temporary (h)
	Residential	P	P	P				P	P
	Suspended (f)					P
	Wall					P	P	P	P	P
	Flag (g)	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
NOTES TO TABLE: Signs in the PUD District shall meet the requirements of the district most comparable. X = Allowed without a sign permit. P = Allowed only with sign permit a) No commercial message allowed on sign, except for a commercial message drawing attention to an activity legally offered on the premises. b) No commercial message of any kind allowed on sign if such message is legible from any location off the lot on which the sign is located. c) Only address and name of occupant allowed on sign. d) May include only building name, date of construction or historical data on historic site; must be cut or etched into masonry, bronze, or similar material. e) No commercial message of any kind allowed on sign. f) If such a sign is suspended or projects above a public right-of-way, the issuance and continuation of a sign permit shall be conditioned on the sign owner obtaining and maintaining in force liability insurance for such a sign in such form and such amount as the Director may reasonably from time to time determine; provided that, the amount of such liability insurance shall be at least $500,000 per occurrence per sign. g) Flags of the United States, the state, the city, foreign nations having diplomatic relations with the United States, and any other flag adopted or sanctioned by an elected legislative body of competent jurisdiction; provided that, such a flag shall not exceed 60 square feet in area and shall not be flown from a pole the top of which is more than 40 feet in height. These flags must be flown in accordance with protocol established by the Congress of the United States for the Stars and Stripes. Any flag not meeting any one or more of these conditions shall be considered a banner sign and shall be subject to regulation as such. h) Maximum sign height is 12 feet, and minimum setback is five feet; however, in no case shall the actual sign height exceed the actual sign setback from any adjacent lot that is zoned and used for residential purposes. For example, if the sign is set back seven feet from such a lot, it may be no more than seven feet high. i) Must be 1,000 from any other off-premises sign on the same side of the road, measured along the right-of way. j) In addition to the setback requirements on this table, signs shall be located such that there is at every street intersection a clear view between heights of three feet and 10 feet in a triangle formed by the corner and points on the curb 30 feet from the intersection or entranceway. k) No direct light or significant glare from the sign shall be cast onto any adjacent lot that is zoned or used for residential purposes.

 

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 6.10)

DISTRICTS AND MAPS

§ 194.180 OFFICIAL ZONE MAP.

   All real property located within the corporate boundaries of the town and under the jurisdiction of the Plan Commission as set forth in this chapter is hereby divided into districts as shown on the official zone map which, together with all explanatory matter, is incorporated by reference and declared to be a part of this chapter.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.1; Ord. 2010-01, passed 1-4-2010)

§ 194.181 IDENTIFICATION OF THE OFFICIAL ZONE MAP.

   The official zone map shall be identified by:

   (A)   The signature of the Plan Commission President;

   (B)   The attestation of the Secretary; and

   (C)   The seal of the Plan Commission under the following words: “This is to certify that this is the Official Zone Map of the Town of Zionsville, County of Boone, State of Indiana”, together with the date of adoption of this chapter.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.2)

§ 194.182 OFFICIAL ZONE MAP CHANGES.

   (A)   (1)   If, after the certification of the official zone map by the Plan Commission, the Town Council, in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and I.C. 36-7-4-600 et seq., changes any of the district boundaries or other matter portrayed on the official zone map, such changes shall be entered by staff on a working copy of the official zone map which is maintained in the office of the Clerk-Treasurer of the town.

      (2)   The working copy of the official zone map shall be available for public inspection and reference during all normal business hours.

      (3)   In case of discrepancy between changes noted on the working copy of the official zone map and the official printed record of the Town Council, the official printed record of the Town Council shall control.

   (B)   (1)   In the event that the official zone map becomes worn, damaged, destroyed, lost or difficult to interpret, staff shall, on an as needed basis, prepare a revised official zone map for review and recommendation by the Plan Commission at a public hearing for which proper notice is provided.

      (2)   A revised official zone map shall incorporate all official actions of the Town Council related to matters depicted on the official zone map since the adoption of the prior official zone map.

      (3)   A revised official zone map may also include revisions to correct drafting errors and changes in the base information related to plats or streets.

   (C)   (1)   The Plan Commission shall certify its recommendation of such revised official zone map to the Town Council for official adoption by the Town Council.

      (2)   Any revised official zone map shall be identified as described above with the addition of the phrase “As amended to and including the Town Council docket of (applicable date).”

   (D)   No change of any nature shall be made in the official zone map, or matter shown thereon, except in conformity with the amendment procedures set forth in this chapter.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.3)

§ 194.183 RETENTION AND PRESERVATION OF RECORDS.

   Unless the prior official zone map has been lost or completely destroyed, the prior official zone map, along with all available records pertaining to its adoption or amendment, shall be retained and preserved in the office of the Clerk-Treasurer of the town.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.4)

§ 194.184 INTERPRETATION OF THE OFFICIAL ZONE MAP.

   Where uncertainty exists with respect to the boundaries of districts shown on the official zone map, the following rules shall apply to the interpretation of those boundaries.

   (A)   Boundaries indicated as approximately following the centerlines of thoroughfares, highways, streets or alleys shall be construed to follow the centerlines.

   (B)   Boundaries indicated as approximately following platted lot lines shall be construed to follow the platted lot lines.

   (C)   Boundaries indicated as approximately following the corporate boundary of the town shall be construed as following the corporate boundary of the town.

   (D)   Boundaries indicated as approximately following the centerlines of former railroad rights-of- way, streams, rivers, lakes or other bodies of water shall be construed as following the centerlines.

   (E)   Boundaries indicated as approximately following floodplain lines shall be construed to follow the floodplain lines.

   (F)   (1)   Boundaries indicated as parallel to or extensions of features indicated in divisions (A) through (E) above shall be so controlled.

      (2)   Distances not specifically indicated on the official zone map shall be determined by the scale of the map.

   (G)   Where a discrepancy exists between the depictions on the official zone map and the text of a legal description accompanying an ordinance for zone map change duly adopted by the Town Council, the text of the legal description shall control.

   (H)   (1)   Where physical or cultural features existing on the ground do not agree with those shown on the official zone map, or in other circumstances not covered above, the staff shall interpret the boundaries.

      (2)   Any party dissatisfied with the interpretation of the staff may appeal such interpretation to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.5)

§ 194.185 ZONING OF NEWLY ANNEXED LAND.

   (A)   Any land which is annexed to the town shall be zoned as follows:

      (1)   Land which was zoned to an agricultural or residential classification pursuant to the zoning ordinance of the county shall be assigned an R-SF-2 District zoning classification of the town upon annexation to the town with the exception that any land designated as “equestrian/estate residential” of the Future Land Use Map of Ch. 6 (Land Use) of the town’s master development plan, adopted as Res. 2002-01 of the Town Council shall be assigned an R-E District zoning classification of the town;

      (2)   Land which was zoned to a business classification pursuant to the zoning ordinance of the county shall be assigned a B-1 District zoning classification of the town upon annexation to the town;

      (3)   Land which was zoned to an industrial classification pursuant to the zoning ordinance of the county shall be assigned an I-ORT District zoning classification of the town upon annexation to the town; and

      (4)   Land which was zoned to any zoning classification pursuant to the zoning ordinance of the county other than those identified in divisions (A)(1) through (A)(3) above shall be assigned an O-1 District zoning classification of the town upon annexation to the town.

   (B)   Unless, in any of the foregoing circumstances, the Town Council assigns a different zoning classification(s) to the land in the ordinance annexing the land based upon evidence or testimony presented at the annexation hearing required under I.C. 35-4-3-2.1.

(Ord. 2000-16, passed 8-28-2000, § 7.6)