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PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SIGN CONTROL - Legal Aspects and Pitfalls <br /> <br /> Leqal Pitfall No. 1: First Amendment violations.in the on- <br /> premise regulations can provide billboard (off-premise) companies <br /> a basis for challenging the parts of the off-premise ordinance <br /> that they wish to invalidate. <br /> <br /> Solution No. 1: Quarantine. Isolate the pn-premise <br /> regulations from the off-premise regulations by having two <br /> separate ordinances, one for on premise, one for off premise, <br /> each able to stand alone with its own definitions, procedures, <br /> restrictions, etc. <br /> <br /> Leaal Pitfall No. 2: Discretion abused, with insufficient <br /> facts to sustain denial of a discretionary permit. <br /> <br /> Solution No. 2: Remove discretion from the sign ordinances <br /> by adopting objective criteria for granting and denying sign <br /> permits. <br /> <br /> Typically the sign permit will be a building permit. Create <br /> clear, unambiguous, easily determined, objective requirements so <br /> that the average building official can process the permit as <br /> easily as processing a permit for a conventional structure <br /> <br />covered by the Uniform Building Code. <br /> <br /> Corollary to No. 2: Either do not allow variances at all or <br /> govern the variances by criteria, such as a set percentage. <br /> Example: 1000' spacing distance, if varied by 10%, results in a <br /> minimum spacing distance of no less than 900' (not 899.9999) <br /> (Note, in some jurisdictions variances of requirements are <br /> <br /> <br />