19.18.06 General Standards

1. Sign Design and Materials. a. Landscaping. The base of all Permanent Ground Signs, including without limitation Monument and Pedestal Signs, shall be landscaped and maintained at all times. The minimum landscaped area shall extend at least three feet beyond the base of the sign in all directions. 2. Sign Placement. a. General Location. No part of any sign shall interfere with the use of any fire escape, exit, doorway, sidewalk, roadway, stairway, door ventilator, or window. No Ground Sign shall be located within any public utility easement without review and approval by the City Engineer. b. Clear Sight Triangle. No sign shall be placed within the clear sight triangle as defined in Section 19.06 of this Code. c. Traffic Safety. No sign shall be designed or placed in any manner that may be confused with any official traffic sign or signal. No sign or other advertising structure shall be designed, constructed, or installed that by reason of its size, location, shape, coloring, or manner of illumination may be confused as a traffic control device. All Traffic Signs shall comply with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. d. Right-of-way. No sign shall be located on public property or within any right-of-way unless otherwise permitted in this Chapter. In cases where a sign hangs over a public right-of-way, it shall extend no more than five feet over a public sidewalk as measured from the face of the supporting building, and shall have a minimum clearance of eight feet from the elevation of the sidewalk. e. Setbacks. i. Side and Rear Setbacks not adjacent to a sidewalk or right-of-way. All permanent and temporary ground signs shall be located a distance equal to or greater than their height from any interior side or rear property line. ii. Front and Street Side Setbacks and other setbacks adjacent to a sidewalk or rightof-way. All permanent and temporary ground signs, except for A-frame signs, shall be located at least three feet from the back of the sidewalk or right-of-way, whichever is greater, and from all driveways as measured from the back of the curb. 3. Sign Illumination. a. All sign lighting shall comply with the limitations in Section 19.11 of this Code. b. Additionally, individual signs shall be illuminated only by one of the following means: i. External Illumination. Signs may be illuminated by a steady, stationary light, directed solely at the sign. Light fixtures for ground signs shall be screened from view by site grading or evergreen shrubs and must not beam directly onto adjacent properties or rights-of-way. ii. Internal Illumination. Signs may be illuminated by an interior light with sign copy or face silhouetted on an opaque background. iii. Halo Illumination. Building signs may be illuminated by neon lighting, only if the neon is used as a light source to form illuminated letters, symbols, sign rim, or some other portion of a sign that consists of 25 percent or less of the entire sign; or as halo illumination of the sign. iv. Digital Changeable Copy. These signs may be illuminated using LED or digital displays and must have illumination control sensors that dim the lights at sunset to 0.3 foot-candles or less measured at one foot from the surface of the sign. 1. Color. Signs shall use red, white, or green characters and symbols. c. Color. No illuminated sign may have a white, off-white, or near-white background, as shown in figure 18.1. Non-illuminated signs may have a white, off-white, or near-white background. d. An illuminated sign may have a white, off-white, or near-white foreground. e. Illumination for external and internally illuminated signs shall not exceed two footcandles as measured one foot from the surface of the sign. f. Illumination for “Changeable Copy, Digital” signs and “Monument” signs shall not exceed 0.3 footcandles over ambient light levels for the location and time, as measured from a horizontal distance approximately equal to the square root of the sign square footage x 100, and shall employ light cutoff devices, such as louvers, to minimize light escaping above the horizontal plane. i. Example: 50 sq. ft. sign, x 100 = 5000. Square root of 5000 = 70.7. The measurement distance is approximately 71 feet from the sign. ii. Example: 200 sq. ft. sign, x 100 = 20,000. Square root of 20,000 = 141.4. The maximum measurement distance is approximately 141 feet from the sign. g. No illuminated signage shall directly face adjacent residentially developed or zoned property, including property across a street. Directly facing means perpendicular, and within 15 degrees of perpendicular in either direction. Exception: i. Illuminated signage may face adjacent residentially developed or zoned property if the signage is automatically dimmed by 50 percent so as to not exceed one footcandle as measured one foot from the surface of the sign; and ii. The Illuminated sign shall be a minimum of 150 feet from the nearest residential property line. 4. Sign and Building Maintenance. a. All signs shall be maintained in good condition. b. When a building sign is removed, the face of the building beneath the sign shall be restored to its original pre-sign condition. c. Those signs meeting the definition of Abandoned Sign in Section 19.18.03 shall be removed. 5. Sign Construction. a. Building Codes. All signs shall comply with the most recently adopted provisions of the National Electrical Code and the International Building Code, or applicable codes as adopted by the City. b. Engineering Required. All building permit applications for signs shall be engineered to demonstrate compliance with the applicable electrical or building code and, where required by the City Building Official, shall be accompanied by an original drawing stamped by a licensed engineer attesting to the adequacy of the proposed construction of the sign and its supports. c. Power Source. Permanent power sources for signs must be concealed underground away from public view or within the structure of the sign or building to which the sign is attached. All electrical connections must comply with all provisions of the National Electrical Code. d. Foundations. All ground signs must be mounted on foundations and footings which conform to the applicable building code. 6. Monument and Pedestal Signs. a. Area. The area of a monument or pedestal sign shall include all parts of the sign face or sign structure that contains text or graphics, as shown in Figures 18.8 and 18.9. b. Height. The height of a monument or pedestal sign shall be measured from the highest point of the sign structure to the height of the street curb or sidewalk nearest the sign. If the sign is located more than fifteen feet from the back of curb or sidewalk, whichever is nearest, the height shall be measured from the grade at the location of the sign, as shown in Figures 18.8 and 18.9. c. Multiple Faces. Signs containing more than one display face shall be calculated as the total area of all faces, except where the interior angle between two faces is fifteen degrees or less, in which case only one display face shall be included in the calculation. d. Monument sign base. The base of the sign shall be a minimum of two feet in height, and shall be constructed of materials and colors that match the building or use. The base shall run the entire horizontal length of the sign and shall contain no sign copy. e. Pedestal sign base. At least two vertical structural supports shall be used on pedestal signs, and the open area of the sign between the supports shall occupy no more than forty percent of the vertical height of the sign. f. Changeable Copy. Non-digital changeable copy may be incorporated into the sign face up to a maximum of 50 percent of the sign area. A protective cover is required over the changeable copy. g. Address. Monument signs shall contain the address of the parcel or use; for multiple addresses, the sign shall contain the range of addresses for the uses. The address may be Figure 18.8 Land Development Code - Title 19.18 Figure 18.9 included in the sign copy, or displayed on the sign structure, and shall not be occluded by landscaping. 7. Building Signs. The main portion of any building sign shall be either a complex cabinet sign or channel lettering. A portion of the sign may be used for the logo and may be a simple cabinet sign only when a complex cabinet sign or channel lettering accompanies it. a. Area, direct-mounted. The area of a sign consisting of text or graphics mounted directly against a wall, window, or fascia of a building and without a background shall be measured by drawing the smallest possible rectangle around the entire group of text or graphics; where there are multiple rows of text or graphics separated by a minimum of twelve inches, the area shall be measured by drawing the smallest possible rectangle around each row of text and/or graphics, as shown in Figure 18.10. b. Area, background mounted. The area of a sign consisting of text or graphics mounted on a background panel or surface shall be measured as the area within the outside dimensions of the background panel or surface, as shown in Figures 18.1 and 18.2. c. Mounting. No portion of the sign shall project above or below the highest or lowest part of the wall on which the sign is located. The sign shall not project outwards more than eighteen inches from the face of the building to which it is attached. Figure 18.10