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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPackets - Council Packets (1167)Council Meeting Special Session July 31, 2019 1 Town Council Meeting Announcements 2 Upcoming Meetings 3 4 Zoning Code Amendment Signs in the Right-of-Way Town Council Session July 31, 2019 OV1802844 TC Session 5 Zoning code sign standards Purpose Currently allowed signs in the right-of-way Revise standards Introduce Monument and Entryway signs in the right-of-way Establish standards The purpose of this item is to review proposed changes to the zoning code related to signs in the right-of-way. We will look at the types of signs that our zoning code currently allows in the right-of-way and the proposed changes that will bring the those signs into legal compliance with State and Federal regulations. We will also look at a proposal to allow monument and entryway signs in the right-of-way and those related standards. While bringing the code into legal conformance is important, the Council does have wide latitude in determining the types of signs to allow in the right-of-way. 6 Right-of-Way Private Property Private Property Right-of-Way First, let’s get familiar with area of land related to the signs that we talking about tonight. That area is the right-of-way. All sign standards that we are going to talk about tonight are related to the signs in the right-of-way only. A right-of-way is a section of land dedicated to the Public to allow for roads, sidewalks, multi-use paths and other public improvements. The right-of-way is not just the area of land where the pavement of the road or sidewalk exists but also can include an area of landscaping or natural desert such as we see on this slide. The widths of right-of-ways can vary throughout the Town. The example on this slide happens to be of the wide right-of-way of Tangerine Road. Again, the signs that we are going to talk about tonight are related only to the right-of-way. 7 Currently Allowed Signs in Right-of-Way Signs Zones Off-site Real Estate Special Event Sign Walkers Community Event Kiosk Model Homes Non-Commercial The signs shown on this slide are all of the sign types currently allowed in the right-of-way. Sign zones: These are specific areas in Town that are set up to allow campaign signs to be placed in the right-of-way. Non-Commercial signs: This sign type allows political signs to be placed in the right-of-way in the same manner that realtors could place open house signs in the right-of-way….which leads me to sign number 3. Off-site real estate signs: This sign type was developed to allow realtors to place signs in the right-of-way to advertise their open house events. Special events signs: This sign type allows specific events to be advertised in the right-of-way. Sign walkers: This sign type allows businesses to advertise sales or events with a person holding a sign. Community event: This sign allows neighborhood groups to announce neighborhood events as hayrides, yard sales and HOA meetings. Kiosk signs: Those are signs made of a specific design to allow builders to advertise new subdivisions. Those are all of the sign types currently allowed in the right-of-way which allows specific users to place signs in the right-of-way with specific messages. Why are we looking at these signs today? What has changed? 8 Reed vs. Town of Gilbert, AZ 2015 United States Supreme Court Ruling Signs in the right-of-way Content neutral Can regulate Size Quantity Location Any Message In 2015 the United States Supreme Court made a ruling about signs in the right-of-way through a case named Reed vs Gilbert. This was a lawsuit brought to the courts by a church who was located in Gilbert Arizona. That law suit asked why some signs, such as open house signs, were allowed to be placed in the right-of-way while other signs, such as a sign directing folks to church services, were not allowed. The supreme court ruled that it is unconstitutional to allow some messages on a sign and not others. The court told us that we must handle these signs in a content neutral method. Content neutral is a term you’re going to hear a lot tonight. It simply means that we must act as though we can not read what is written on the sign in the right-of-way. It cannot matter if the sign reads open house or advertises a sale or directs us to a religious event. Jurisdictions can only regulate the Size, Quantity and Location of signs placed in the right-of-way but not the (Push) message on the sign. This was a nation wide shift in how signs were going to be handled from that point on. 9 State Laws Sign Walkers Cannot distinguish between commercial and non-commercial Content neutral Political Signs 60 days before election 15 days after election 16 square feet near residential zones 32 square feet near non-residential zones Sale Today Any Message For those of us here in Arizona, we also had to learn about a couple of changes to State laws in addition to the Federal ruling that I just talked about. First, the State of Arizona ruled that local jurisdictions could no longer distinguish between a person holding a sign stating their political opinion over a person holding a sign advertising a sale or event for a business. This State law basically fell in line with the content neutrality standards required by the Untied States Supreme Court. We must act as if we cannot read the sign (push). Then the State determined that Political signs were going to be treated differently. The State tells us that candidates running for office can place fairly large signs in in the right-of-way several weeks before an election and can leave them up several days after the election. The irony is that the state law seems to be content based (for Politian's) while the Federal ruling tells us that we can’t regulate the content on a sign. This conflict between Federal and State laws has been challenging to the planners and attorneys of all jurisdictions in Arizona. Well, what do we do with all of these new rules? 10 Town of Oro Valley Ordinance 15-13 Oro Valley’s Interim Solution Stop gap measure Content neutral for all signs in the right-of-way All sign types allowed for use by anyone Size Quantity Location First, we had to do something immediately. Our zoning code was instantly out of compliance with the new Federal standards. So as an interim solution, Town Council adopted an ordinance that allowed us to directly use our sign standards in a content neutral method. This meant that although our code currently reads that a realtor can place an open house sign in the right-of-way, we will now act as if the code reads that anyone can place a sign in the right-of-way for any reason as long as the size, quantity and location of the code is adhered to. This stop gap measure gave us some time to figure out how to change our codes. It also gave us a testing period to see how our current code operates with content neutral standards. 11 Proposed Revisions 9 square foot sign 4 square foot sign 16 square feet Sign Walkers Kiosk Model Homes Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message We had to determine what to do with the currently allowed sign types. Staff is proposing taking the content neutral standards very seriously by proposing to keep the signs shown on this slide, rename the signs, modify the descriptions and remove duplicates. We do know that by keeping these same sign types, available for anyone’s use since the supreme court ruling, has actually not resulted in an over proliferation of signs in the right-of-way, except for perhaps during election times because of the State regulations we talked about earlier, which are out of our control. Although we must bring our sign code into legal conformance, the Council has latitude to determine which, if any sign types will remain in the code. This summarizes the standards related to changes for the existing signs in the right-of-way. Next……. 12 Signs in the Right-of-Way Monument and Entryway Signs Addition of Monument and Entryway signs Currently only allowed on private property Develop specific right-of-way standards Monument Sign Entryway Sign Any Message Any Message We will look at monument and entryway signs. While the Town was in the process of revising the standards for signs in the right-of-way, we received a letter from one of our local churches. In that letter, the church asked if the Town would consider allowing monument and entryway signs in the right-of-way. The photo on this slide shows what typical monument and entryway signs look like. If you notice these signs are a more permanent type of structure unlike the signs we reviewed earlier. These signs are usually about 6’ to 10’ tall and are generally used to advertise a nearby development. At this time, monument and entryway signs are only allowed on private property and not in the right-of-way. When staff reviewed the request, it became evident that the Town could develop specific standards to accommodate this request. But keep in mind that when a sign in placed in the right-of-way, we can no longer regulate the (push) message on the sign. 13 Monument Sign Location 135’ Let’s look at another look at a photo of a right-of-way with monument and entryway signs in mind. This is actually an example of the property belonging to the church who requested the code change. Currently the code would only allow a monument sign on their private property, far away from the travel lanes of the road. The yellow star indicates a sign location. They have stated that allowing a sign (push, push) closer to the street would improve visibility for the church. 14 Proposed right-of-way standards Monument Sign Major/Minor arterial roads 100’ Distance between pavement and property line 20’ Distance possible with special circumstance Vehicular speed Sight visibility Safety Allowing monument or entryway signs in the right-of-way is a significant change to the zoning code, which is why staff developed standards that would not create an over proliferation of the signs. For example: Limit the location to the right-of-way of major or minor arterial roads Limit the quantity to 1 per street frontage And only when there are significant distances between the property and the street Or when special circumstances cause visibility issues. Of course site visibility and safety would be the top most concern 15 Monument Sign in the Right-of-Way Town Engineer and Planning and Zoning Administrator review Planning and Zoning Commission Town Council final review License agreement Review process …..since the request to place a monument sign in the right-of-way involves a permanent location on public property, the review and approval would not simply happen at staff level like an average sign permit, but approval would be a process that included both the PZC and TC along with requiring a license agreement. 16 Your Voice, Our Future General Plan Goal  Q:  A built environment that creatively integrates landscape, architecture, open space and conservation elements to increase the sense of place, community interaction and quality of life.   Action item #125: Maintain the unique character of Oro Valley by studying and updating: Signage regulations to emphasize identification and direction over advertising goods or services to maintain compatibility and minimal intrusiveness. As always we look to the General Plan’s Goals and Policies when updating signage regulations to emphasize identification and direction without intrusive signs. Bringing the code into compliance with the legal standards set up by the State and Federal governments is a necessary update, the subjective topic for the Council tonight is which types of signs to allow in the right-of-way. 17 Summary 9 square foot sign 4 square foot sign 16 square feet Sign Walkers Kiosk Model Homes Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Any Message Monument Sign Sign types proposed in the right-of-way Any message Entryway Sign In summary this slide shows all the sign types proposed to be allowed in the right-of-way including the new monument/entryway sign types. The Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended approval of the proposed code amendment. 18 19