7.2. SR 05-18-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Temporary Signs In October 2006 the City Council reviewed the option of banning temporary signs but decided to adopt an ordinance amendment allowing temporary signs but wanted an update on them at a later time. It has been 2'/z years and staff has noted several major issues that have been repeatedly happening: 1. Many signs are being placed in landscaped areas/road right-of--ways. The ordinance requires them to be on an approved surface. 2. Many signs are being displayed without a permit or without the permit attached to the sign. 3. Determining what non-profit event signs can be on City property. Process How are temporary signs processed? The applicant drops off the permit application at the Building Department (for consistency, all permits start at the Building Department) where they forward it to the Planning Department. The Planning Department reviews the permit and, if allowed, inputs it into the computer system and fills out the physical permit to be placed on the sign. The Planning Department then gives it back to the Building Department to be picked up by the applicant (again for consistency, all permits are picked up at the Building Department). Once the sign is removed, the applicant then requests their deposit back with a form they fill out and give to the City. Staff then visits the property to verify that the sign is removed. If it is removed, then the form is given to the Finance Department to process the refund. Before the $100 deposit can be refunded, the Finance Department needs to run a report and make sure the deposit has not already been refunded. This gets more time consuming when a business or individual has had more than one temporary sign. The Finance Department needs to tie the refunds issued to the specific sign permit to make sure a refund is not issued twice for the same sign. Sign permits are receipted with the daily building permits. Policzng Staff has more aggressively been policing temporary signs this year and has begun the process of notifying property owners who have temporary signs on their property without a permit and/or installed in the wrong location. They are informed that a citation will be issued which may result in court appearances for the property owners. At this time, no citations have been issued. In February, staff did send out a reminder letter of the regulations to all of the property owners of 2008 permit holders. Even with this reminder letter, many of which were sent certified mail, many signs are located incorrectly and without a permit or without the permit attached to the sign. Sign Violation Notification Process The process for a sign violation is to go to the property, document the sign with a photo and then send the property owner and tenant an initial contact letter (certified) stating the violation. If the violation is not corrected by the date specified, staff goes back to the property to again document the sign with a photo and a finaLnotice is sent to the property owner stating a citation will be issued. In concept, this process works as the sign eventually does get corrected but it takes a significant amount of time from when the violation is noticed to resolution. Often this time is as long as the sign is displayed. Community Events/Non-Profit Staff would like to make a recommendation that the only signs allowed on City properties are for those Community Events (Fourth of July Celebration, Community .Festival, Sherburne County Fair, Business E.x~o) listed in Section 38-383 (6). This takes out interpretation of what "community event" should or should not be S:\PLANNING MAIN\Case Files\OA\OA 09-O1 Sign Ord Update\OA 09-01_CC-3.doc