18.60.010 Purpose.
The city council finds that signs provide an important medium through which individuals and businesses may convey a variety of messages. However, left completely unregulated, signs can become a threat to public safety and a traffic hazard as well as an obstruction to Electric City’s unique landscape.
The standards contained in this chapter are primarily intended to balance the needs of businesses and individuals to convey their messages through signs, and the right of the public to be protected against the unrestricted proliferation of signs and their effect on public and traffic safety. In an attempt to achieve the balance, the purpose of this chapter is to:
(1) Improve the visual qualities of Electric City’s streetscape environment through the use of equitably applied sign height, size and location standards;
(2) Provide minimum, consistent and enforceable sign standards by regulating sign location, size, height, illumination, construction, and maintenance;
(3) Minimize visual clutter caused by signs by limiting their numbers and duration of use;
(4) Protect citizen safety by prohibiting hazardous signs;
(5) Ensure compliance with state and federal laws regarding advertising by providing rules and standards that are content neutral; and
(6) Provide for near term and longer term improvements to signage through the use of appropriate amortization and incentive policies. (Ord. 466 § 2, 2012)