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Chamber seeks input on changeable signs
(by Sue Reid - April 29, 2010)
Chamber seeks input on changeable signs
By SUE REID
Solon City Council tabled proposed sign regulation amendments last week based on a request by the Solon Chamber of Commerce.
Marc Paige, chairman of the board of the chamber, said the organization is interested in providing constructive input regarding the zoning ordinance governing signs, particularly changeable-copy signs.
"To do this, it is necessary that we meet with selected members who will be affected by the new ordinance to receive their input," he said. "Because of the time frame involved, we respectfully request that passage of the new sign ordinance be delayed until the first City Council meeting in May."
Mr. Paige said the chamber's mission is to serve as advocates for the business community by supporting and fostering vibrant economic growth.
Councilman Lon D. Stolarsky said the chamber's request was reasonable.
The city has been reviewing its signs, especially those with changeable copy.
Solon Planning Director Robert S. Frankland had submitted a proposal to the planning commission to remove any content requirements from the code. It is based on recent court rulings that have come down that say sign ordinances have to be content neutral, he said.
If the city would remove the public-function requirement for content, he said, he believes more businesses will have changeable-copy signs.
Signs are "essential to businesses," Mr. Frankland said. "That is one of the principal means they bring customers into their business."
It's important to understand that, with the proposed amendments, "we are beginning with a major expansion right now of the types of signs that are permitted in the city," he said.
"In the past, changeable copy was essentially prohibited," Mr. Frankland said. "With this ordinance, it has greatly expanded how signs can be used in the city. It's something that is very good for businesses."
Mr. Frankland said the proposed revisions state the maximum sign area permitted for changeable copy area would be 33 percent. He said what is in the ordinance now indicates public speech, such as time and temperature, was at 80 percent.
"We have almost no signs in the city at that size," Mr. Frankland said. "This would say you could have unlimited commercial speech." The planning commission determined that rather than that be at 80 percent, which would be overwhelming and perhaps a safety issue, they wanted to take that to 33 percent.
Another proposed amendment states that changeable copy is restricted exclusively to free-standing signs. Another regulates the interval of the changeable copy from 30 seconds to five minutes and another states that the maximum number of lines of text permitted in the changeable copy sign be limited to two.
Mr. Paige said the chamber will discuss among its members and subcommittees the proposal "to see the impact and stance we want to take." The chamber has both a retail and legislative committee discussing ideally what the chamber wants and then a request to council will be made once a consensus is reached, Mr. Paige said.
He said the legislative committee recently was re-established at the chamber and was not fully operational in time for public hearing on this issue, which is why a delay was requested.
Mr. Paige said a deeper issue is that, because the chamber is "truly an advocate for business, whenever there are issues that potentially could affect businesses, our duty is to make people aware such an issue is under discussion and solicit input from our members to properly relay that to the city."
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