Agenda - Council - 11/13/2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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government tailors their regulations to their own situation. One approach adopted by cities is to prohibit electronic outdoor advertising devices in residential zoning districts, and for a certain distance away from residential zoning districts, similar to the zoning limitations placed on illuminated signs. Some ordinances require that electronic signs be situated such that the sign face is not visible from nearby residences. 4.2.2 Size Limitations on Electronic Signs Another way of regulating electronic signs is to limit their size. Again, there is no set standard for this. One ordinance reviewed for the purpose of this study limits the electronic portion of a sign to no more than 50 percent of the sign face with the overall size determined by whatever the sign ordinance allows for a particular zoning district. Other examples of electronic sign size limitations include five square feet, 1,000 square inches, 20 square feet, and so forth. In other ordinances, there is no differentiation made between the size of electronic signs and other signs. According to input from representatives of the sign industry, the smaller the size of the electronic sign, the more desirable it is for businesses to use frequent message changes, or sequenced messages, where more than one screen of text is used to convey an entire message. 4.2.3 Rate -of -Chance Limitations on Electronic Signs Many communities that allow electronic signs also regulate the rate at which the messages on the signs can be changed. Research on sign codes has shown this to range from as little as four seconds to as long as 24 hours. The Interstate 394 sign between Ridgedale Drive and Plymouth Road is visible for approximately 45 seconds at free flow traffic speeds. Depending on text size, the message may not be readable by drivers during this entire duration, but the message changes can attract attention from long distances. Depending on how often the message changes occur and the speed of traffic, drivers on this segment could see a varying number of discrete messages. Table 7 provides the number of message changes a driver would see at different change durations and traffic speeds. 20