GAINESVILLE – A new sign ordinance is up for approval by the Gainesville City Council and it includes restrictions on yard signage on private property.
Yards loaded with an abundance of signs endorsing various political causes or candidates will possibly become a thing of the past.
Of primary concern to city leaders are signs that negatively impact vehicular traffic by providing an obstruction or a distraction. In addition to safety concerns, maintaining an attractive appearance throughout the city is a stated objective in the amendment to the existing ordinance.
A memorandum included with the ordinance given to council members explaining the reason for the ordinance change states:
The overall objective (is) to make the complete sign code content neutral in light of prior Georgia Court decisions and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Reed v Town of Gilbert, Arizona. (June, 2015). Other objectives include making the sign code easier to interpret for both staff and the public.
Jerry Weitz is part of the city’s Community Development Department and presented the amendment to the City’s Unified Land Development Code to the city council at their work session Thursday morning.
“We worked on this sign-code update for a period of several months now; we went through four drafts and also worked with the city attorney, and we feel pretty good about it: it’s a content-neutral ordinance that’ll hopefully serve the city for the next decade or more,” Weitz explained.
“Everybody has the right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution…so we have to have some sort of an allowance for…a political message…anything that they want to say… (and) we have that opportunity for small ground signs and so forth in the sign code so that we‘re able to preserve their First Amendment rights,” Weitz said.
“That allowance for an accessory ground sign is basically one per frontage; so if you are on a corner lot you could have one on both (frontages),” Weitz told council members.
“Say somebody wants to advertise three of four different candidates during a political season they would not normally be able to do that; they would be limited to one,” Weitz elaborated.
“And in residential areas it’s a small size, I think it is only three square feet for a temporary ground sign.”
City Planner Matt Tate said, “It’s really something that we have now (in the current ordinance), but it’s more clearly defined in the new ordinance as far as the number of temporary signs."
“We really feel good about any type of constitutional objection or lawsuit; we feel good about our code,” Tate told the council
Tate added that it was time to update the language governing signs in the City’s Unified Land Development Code. “Really, on a daily basis, with our code enforcement, we are addressing a lot of the temporary signage that is out in the city limits and it’s a daily effort to say the least.”
Tate said during the political season it had become a challenge and clarity needed to be brought to the code.
According to the memorandum submitted with the ordinance to the council:
The uniform sign plan provision also allows the Community Development Director (Rusty Ligon, at present) some flexibility in the allowance, upon application, of certain modifications to the strict terms of the sign ordinance.
A public hearing and the first of two required readings of the ordinance amendment will take place Tuesday evening at the council’s voting session, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Gainesville Justice Center on Queen City Parkway.
