The Legislative & Ordinance Committee will recommend tonight that the City Council begin the process to approve a new sign ordinance for the CORE district.
The issue was discussed Monday night at the L&O session, with reservations expressed by one member of the committee.
The ordinance will establish regulation to control signs specific to that district. The downtown signs have generally fallen under regulations for commercial district.
However, several members of the council, in particular both downtown ward councilors, Ward 2 Councilor James E. Brown Jr., and Peter J. Miller Jr., who recently resigned as the Ward 3 councilor, felt that the commercial district regulations are not suitable for the CORE district, which is more dense with abutting buildings.
Brown and Miller, prior to his resignation, proposed the creation of a CORE sign ordinance to address the unique character of the downtown business district.
The ordinance establishes regulations for a variety of sign types and the process of review by city boards. The Planning Board will conduct a special permit review process for some of the signs, while the Board of Public Works will issue permits for others following a public hearing.
The proposed ordinances will regulate front and side wall signs, Awning and canopy signs, ground signs, signs that project from buildings, sandwich board signs and illumination of signs. Several types of signs, such as projecting and canopy signs will require a permit issued by both the Planning Board and Board of Public Works.
Ward 3 Councilor Mary O’Connell raised the issue of “grandfathering” signs that may not be in compliance with existing regulations. O’Connell said that “illegal” signs should be brought under compliance through the new ordinance.
At-large Councilor James R. Adams argued that because there is no existing ordinance to regulate signs in the CORE district, none of the existing signs are illegal.
The first paragraph of the proposed ordinance addresses the grandfathering issue.
“All currently existing permanent business signs in the CORE District in existence (legally or otherwise) prior to 9/1/11 which do not conform to these sign requirements shall be permitted and considered preexisting nonconforming.”
If any of those preexisting, nonconforming signs are replaced, the new sign will have to be in compliance with the ordinance.
