City Council Expected To Approve Revised Sign Ordinance

The Pleasant Hill City Council is expected to approve Monday night a sign ordinance that has been many months in the making.

It began two years ago, when a candidate for county office put up a campaign sign on a public median in Pleasant Hill that measured eight feet by four feet. The candidate was ordered by the city to remove the sign, because it was in violation of the city's sign ordinance, which stated that campaign signs could not be larger than six feet by four feet.

Rather than remove the sign, the candidate simply cut the sign in half, created two four by four signs. Putting them together resulted in the same result, but this time in technical compliance with the city's law. 

To address that, the Planning Commisison last year began a discussion on limiting the size of signs on residential and commercial properties, as well as limiting the length of time those signs could go up and remain in place. However, the commission soon came up against any number of First Amendment issues regarding regulation of political speech, and the ordinance was drafted to be "content-neutral," so that the ordinance now regulates all "free-standing, non-commerical signs," which can be loosely translated to mean political signs. 

The City Council also wrestled with the issue for severval meetings this year, finally coming up with an ordinance that proposes to limit the time candidates can put up a sign - if passed, the law would allow political signs to be posted for 65 days at a time, four times a year, with 30 days in between postings. 

The ordinance would prohibit all political signs within the public right of way, reduce the number of signs allowed on each property, and require a distance of one foot between each sign on private property, and four feet on commercial property.

The City Council meets at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.