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AGENDA ITEM MEMORANDUM DATE: July 15, 2013 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers Patrick Klaers, City Administrator FROM: Matthew Bachler, Community Development Intern SUBJECT: Dynamic Display Sign Ordinance Requested Action Review the definition of dynamic display signage in the City Sign Code and direct staff to make changes if necessary. Background The Shell gas station on County Road E has submitted a sign permit application to reface an existing freestanding sign on their property to include an LED price sign (Attachment A). A similar price sign was approved administratively for the Holiday Gas Station on Highway 96 in November 2010. Based on staff interpretation of the Sign Code, this type of sign qualifies as a dynamic display sign, which are not permitted in the City. Dynamic display refers to digital advertising signs whose content is updated electronically. These signs commonly use LED, plasma displays, or LCD to display the content. A variety of signs can fall under the category of dynamic display, ranging from large-scale billboards with video displays to public signs providing travel conditions on highways. Municipalities have responded to the increased use of these types of signs by coming up with regulations and exemptions to limit their use and design, or by prohibiting them entirely. The City of Arden Hills Sign Code makes no exceptions for the use of dynamic display signage. Section 1210 of the Code defines dynamic display as the following: Any characteristics of a sign that appear to have movement or that appear to change, caused by any method other than physically removing and replacing the sign or its components, whether the apparent movement or change is in the display, the sign structure itself, or any other component of the sign. This includes a display that incorporates a technology or method allowing the sign face to change the image without having to physically or mechanically replace 12 Page of