Agenda Date: 07/19/2016
Subject:
Title
An ordinance amending chapter 3 of title 4 and chapter 20 of title 3 of the city code concerning the regulation of signs
Body
Presented By:
Kristin Schledorn, City Attorney
POLICY QUESTION:
Does city council support amending the city code to remove content-based sign restrictions and to add regulations concerning signs on city property and in public rights of way?
BACKGROUND:
At the city council study session on May 10, 2016, the city attorney's office presented background information on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Ariz., 135 S.Ct. 2218 (2015) and suggested edits to the city code based on that decision. In the Reed case, the court ruled that the provisions in the Town of Gilbert's sign code, which had differing restrictions on temporary political, ideological and directional signs, were content-based regulation of speech (i.e. the law was applied based on the message expressed) which did not survive strict scrutiny (a legal standard that requires those regulations to be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest), and therefore violated the First Amendment.
The city attorney's office is recommending that the city code be updated in light of the Reed decision.
STAFF ANALYSIS:
The proposed updates generally include:
* Section 1 General Provisions
o Scope, Intent and Purposes: These sections of the sign code were expanded to clarify the city's intent to accommodate First Amendment speech rights and to add message neutrality and message substitution policies.
o Definitions: This section was revised to add definitions for new types of signs (banners, feather banners, commercial mascots, digital and dynamic displays), to modernize existing definitions, and to remove or revise definitions that rely on or reference content or message.
* Section 2 Regulation of Signs
o Provisions regulating message content have been removed. These include regulations concerning co...
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