Sign Ordinance
The City Council will be discussing the potential of changing the current sign ordinance at a work session during the summer of 2009. Currently, there are pressures to change the ordinance to include digital signage and larger signs. It will be important for the Council to listen to both the needs of business and the desires of the residents in our community.
The current sign ordinance can be read on the City of Daphne web-site: Click on City of Daphne, then in the left margin click on ordinances, scroll down and click on Sign Ordinance and Amendment.
Alabama State Issues:
March 23, 2009 Action Alert from Scenic Alabama:
Scenic Alabama members and supporters asked to express opposition to SB 437
Sen. Hank Erwin has again introduced a bill to allow billboards to be reconstructed if they are destroyed by weather or "act of God". You might recall that this bill has been introduced in some form since at least 2006.
This year, SB 437 would allow the owner of a billboard or advertising sign "south of Interstate Highway 20 in Alabama to Interstate Highway 10 in Alabama" to replace a board destroyed by weather, to the same state it was before the destruction, if it complies with state and federal law.
We have asked Sen. Erwin for the reasons he included the geographic designation, and we will forward his response when we receive it.
In the past we have opposed this bill because it supersedes local regulations. In a city which does not allow billboards, or restrict them, a non-conforming sign that is destroyed cannot be rebuilt. This law would force the city to allow it.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and is on the agenda for March 24.
Scenic Alabama is working with Conservation Alabama this year for our legislative issues, which allows you to express your opinion on this bill and it will go directly to your legislator and the committee members. Please click here. Or, contact your legislator directly and ask him or her to vote against SB437 in committee and/or in the legislature.
April 2007:
The City of Daphne is considering changes to the current Sign Ordinance. Discussions, including allowing digital signs, may be included on the agenda for the next work session on Thursday, May 10th in the Council chambers. Check the City calendar for details.
From the March 2006 OTDA Newsletter: Proposed Changes to the Sign Ordinance:
Proposed changes to the Daphne City Sign Ordinance were discussed in committee, sent to the Planning Commission in January and returned to the Sign Committee for further discussion, input, and a presentation from Lamar Advertising, in February. Additional revisions have been made, since the sign committee's recommendations. Copies of the proposed changes to the sign ordinance were received by the Planning Commission on March 30th shortly before the start of the meeting. After a brief discussion, including a suggestion to add digital signs, the Commission determined that it will schedule a work session to discuss proposed changes. See: Proposed changes to Sign Ordinance 3-30-06. A copy of the current Daphne City Sign Ordinances is available in the Library. There will be a public hearing regarding the changes on Friday, April 7th at 3:00 in the Daphne City Council Chambers.
Press Release 2006:
SCENIC ALABAMA LEADS SUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO DEFEAT BILLBOARD PROTECTION BILLSB 197 died with the closing of the 2006 legislative session, which was good news for elected officials and planning boards in Alabama. This bill, introduced by Sen. Hank Erwin of Shelby County said a billboard could be reconstructed if it met federal, state, and local guidelines, even if a city's sign ordinance said that a destroyed billboard could not be rebuilt.
Many Alabama cities don't permit billboards, but an existing billboard can stay up - this is commonly called the "grandfather" provision. It means that the billboard is a "legal nonconforming use". Sen. Erwin's bill would have allowed billboards to be reconstructed, against the wishes of the local citizens, and even if other nonconforming uses could not be rebuilt.
This bill would have been a blow not only to sign regulations, but also to zoning regulations in general, since there would have been nothing to stop the legislature from coming back later and deciding some other nonconforming use deserved special rights.
After Scenic Alabama received word of this bill from the Alabama chapter of the American Planning Association, we implemented a statewide effort to stop it. City officials, planners and citizens wrote letters, sent emails and made phone calls to legislators to state their opposition to the bill.
On April 5, the State Government Committee in the House of Representatives voted to hold the bill, after a public hearing which had been requested by Scenic Alabama. Executive Director Lisa Harris testified, as did a representative of the city of Orange Beach. Several members of a Gulf Coast business group* traveled from south Alabama to Montgomery to express their opposition to the bill.. (*Gulf United Metropolitan Business Organization, or GUMBO)
Most cities, especially in tourism-dependent areas, are trying to prevent or limit billboards. Scenic Alabama was pleased to be able to take the lead in fighting this bill and supporting local government.
●From Scenic Alabama: Proposed moratorium on digital signs in Birmingham:
The Birmingham City Council will vote Tuesday, April 24th on a moratorium on digital billboards. If it passes, then the city will have time to look at how it wants to deal with these Jumbotron signs, before any more are put up. Councilor Valerie Abbott is sponsoring the moratorium resolution.