LINCOLN -- Lincoln Planning Commission last week forwarded a new sign ordinance to be considered by Lincoln City Council at its Oct. 16 meeting.
Juliet Richey with Garver Engineering in Fayetteville has been serving as the city's consultant to update the current ordinance, which has possibly been in existence since the 1970s.
The Commission has worked on a new sign ordinance for about three months and held a public hearing on the draft document prior to its meeting last week. Richey reviewed the ordinance during the public hearing. No one from the public had any questions or comments about it.
"The existing sign ordinance is very old and people were having to get variances that you were OK with," Richey said.
She added that the city also needed to update its ordinance to be in compliance with a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited cities from regulating content-based signs.
"Every sign ordinance in America was not legal overnight," Richey told Commission members.
Richey said Lincoln's new ordinance will have an easy template that developers will be able to understand. One section in the ordinance shows the sign regulations by zoning district, whether a sign is allowed, allowed with a conditional use permit, allowed with restrictions or prohibited.
Certain signs are allowed in every district, such as government signs, street numbers, flags and traffic control signs.
Temporary signs that are allowed include banners, election signs, for sale signs, signs for new business openings and signs during holiday periods.
Flags are permitted per regulations spelled out in that section.
The ordinance also has pull-out pages on the regulations for each type of sign and city staff will be able to hand developers or residents the page that spells out requirements for the type of sign they would like to install.
Some of the signs addressed in the ordinance include awning signs, canopy signs, digital signs, monument signs, sandwich board signs and shingle signs.
The ordinance requires a sign permit prior to the display and erection of any sign, except authorized signs and official notices.
General News on 10/10/2018