Ames City Council Reviews Sign Laws, Could Approve Dealership Lighting

Closed businesses would have six months to remove their signs and poles after leaving town as would people advertising services that are no longer provided, if the Ames City Council accepts recommendations from city staff.

Staff have recommended a number of changes to the city's current sign laws. One is that a sign and the structure holding it in place be removed within six months after the business is gone or service is no longer provided.

The current law allows sign structures to remain.

Other changes include cleaning up language so that people who violated sign rules could be fined $500. Violations were $30 per violation due to a problem in the wording of the City Code, according to a report prepared for City Council.

The council will discuss the report during its regular meeting Tuesday.

The first reading of the ordinance is on the agenda, as is the third reading of an ordinance allowing marine and car dealerships to use alternative lighting and landscaping. The changes were made at the request of the Deery Brothers Dealership. The Dealership is operating on South Duff Avenue in a temporary location until its new dealership on S. 16^th Street is built.

Deery Brothers approached the city in 2012 concerned that the City had no specific lighting provisions for auto dealers who would of course want to light up their sales lot. A draft of the ordinance allowed for 90 foot-candles in display parking lots. The term foot-candles refers to the amount of space to be illuminated or brightness. The display lighting would be reduced to 2 foot-candles after 10 p.m., according to the draft. 

There will also be a public hearing on a request for a change in land use on 24^th Street from residential low density to residential high density. First Evangelical Free Church plans to sell its land to be used for the expansion of Northcrest, a senior living community, requiring the change.