§ 64.302. Nonconforming advertising signs; conversion to billboard with dynamic display.

(a)

Intent and purpose. Studies show that there is a correlation between driver distraction and accidents. Signs with dynamic displays can be a cause of driver distraction. Along highways, signs with dynamic displays tend to distract drivers if they are waiting to see the next change, especially if it is a continuation of the message or if the transition uses special effects. Signs with lettering that is too small to read at a glance also cause driver distraction; whereas, typical time and temperature signs, which can be read at a glance, are not a significant distraction. This section allows for the conversion of illuminated billboards to billboards with dynamic displays subject to standards that maintain highway safety.

Dynamic display technologies can greatly expand the advertising capacity and graphic flexibility of billboards. However, section 64.420 prohibits any new advertising signs in the city in order to protect and improve views, aesthetics, community pride and investment, and the visibility of local businesses. One purpose of this chapter is to reduce the number of billboards in the city. The provisions of the present section seek to offer benefits both to the public and to billboard owners. This section allows increased advertising through the addition of dynamic display technologies on existing billboards along certain freeways in exchange for voluntary reductions in the number of billboards in the city.

(b)

Except in a B4 or B5 zoning district, a legally nonconforming, illuminated billboard may be converted to a billboard with a dynamic display if the following conditions are met:

(1)

The billboard is located within three hundred thirty (330) feet of I-94 or I-35E north of I-94 and is designed to be read from the highway.

(2)

The billboard is at least one (1) mile measured along the freeway from any other billboard with a dynamic display designed to be read by drivers heading in the same direction on the highway.

(3)

Only one (1) sign face on a billboard structure is converted.

(4)

The billboard is not in the visual field of any residence, regardless of municipal boundaries, that is in a residential or TN traditional neighborhood zoning district and has windows which are facing and from which the dynamic display is directly visible. "Visual field" means the cone-shaped area in front of a billboard, drawn on a map, that extends perpendicular from the center of the sign face for one thousand (1,000) feet with a vertex angle of seventy-five (75) degrees and also includes peripheral triangles on both sides of the cone, which are delineated by extending the line of the sign face two hundred (200) feet in each direction from its center, and from these two (2) points connecting to the two (2) outer points of the cone.

(5)

The owner of the billboard shall apply for and receive a sign permit for the conversion from the city.

(6)

As part of the permit application, the applicant shall agree in writing to remove permanently other existing billboards in the city; for each square foot of dynamic display space being created, six (6) square feet of illuminated billboard faces, or eight (8) square feet of non-illuminated faces shall be removed. Billboards that the applicant owns or controls in residential zoning districts or any other locations designated for billboard removal by resolution of the city council must be taken down before billboards taken down in other areas of the city will be counted toward this removal requirement. Billboards may be counted toward the removal if they have been or will be removed between one (1) year prior to the application and two (2) months following the issuance of the permit. The removals must include the complete removal of the billboard structures including the foundations of any freestanding billboards.

Prior to approval of the sign permit, the applicant must agree in writing that the city may remove the billboards if the applicant has not done so before the new electronic message sign is put into operation, and the applicant must submit a cash deposit or letter of credit acceptable to the city to pay the city's cost for that removal. The applicant must also agree in writing that the removal of the billboards is done voluntarily and the applicant has no right, under any law, to compensation from any governmental unit for the removed signs.

When a billboard is permanently removed (including the sign or display surface and all elements of the sign structure) for purposes of dynamic display conversion under this section or when a billboard is permanently removed for any other reason, and the owner of the removed billboard surrenders in writing any state and local permits previously issued for the removed billboard, no new sign and/or sign structure permit will be issued for the real property on which the removed billboard was located.

(7)

If the removed signs are ones for which a state permit is required, the applicant and owners must surrender such permits to the state. The billboard with a dynamic display may not be put into operation until proof is provided to the city that such state permits have been surrendered.

(c)

In addition to the other regulations in this chapter, a billboard with a dynamic display shall conform to the following operational standards:

(1)

All alpha-numeric copy must be at least fifteen (15) inches high.

(2)

The images and messages displayed must be static, and the transition from one static display to another must be direct and immediate without any special effects. Each image and message displayed must be complete in itself, and may not continue on the subsequent one. Each image and message must remain constant for at least twelve (12) seconds before changing to the next one.

(C.F. No. 07-1106, § 2, 12-12-07; C.F. No. 09-1015, § 1, 12-9-09)