Ordinance No. 131 Consolidated Land Use Ordinance

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SECTION 19. SIGNS 1. Purpose and Intent. The purpose of Gem Lake sign regulation is to promote the creation of an attractive visual environment in the City. The regulations are intended to promote a healthy economy by allowing businesses and individuals to effectively inform, identify, direct and communicate with the public using rights of way in Gem Lake. This aim is balanced with an equal intent to foster public safety and maintain an attractive built environment in the City by encouraging the appropriate design, scale and placement of signs in the City. The regulations are intended to encourage the orderly placement of signs, to assure that the information displayed on any sign is clearly visible for its intended purpose, and to allow the fair and consistent enforcement of the sign regulations by the City of Gem Lake. 2. Findings. 1. The City Council concludes that it is necessary to regulate signs in the City in order to promote and preserve public health, safety and welfare. That conclusion is based upon the following findings: 1. Signs provide an important medium through which individuals and businesses may convey a variety of messages. 2. Signs can create hazards to motorists and pedestrians, particularly when inappropriately designed or placed signs interfere with necessary sight distances, divert the attention of drivers and pedestrians, or obscure directional guidance or traffic control devices. 3. A positive sense of place and community image is important to the health and welfare of individuals and businesses in Gem Lake. Community image and aesthetic is also a key component of property values in the City. Permanent and temporary signs have a direct impact on and relationship to the image and aesthetic of the community. 4. Uncontrolled and unlimited signs result in roadside clutter and obstruction of views for motorists and pedestrians, and diminish the ability of any sign to effectively convey its intended message. 5. Properly regulated signage can create an atmosphere of prosperity, stimulate positive commercial activity and consequently lead to increased employment, higher property values and a healthier tax base. 6. Citizens have different expectations for the aesthetic environment of a residential area compared with that of a commercial area. Signs should be smaller in scale and their use generally more restricted in residential areas than in commercial areas where the public expects to see a variety of signs. 3. Permit Required. 1. No sign shall be erected, altered, reconstructed, maintained or moved in the City without first securing a permit from the City. The speech content of the sign shall not be considered when approving or denying a sign permit; however, the content must be submitted to properly evaluate the signage area, design and placement. A proposed sign with a structure requiring a building permit or electrical permit must obtain those permits in addition to a sign permit. 1. Exemptions. The following signs shall not require a permit, but remain subject to the standards of these regulations concerning erection, maintenance and removal, and the standards of any other applicable law or ordinance. 1. A sign, of less than four (4) square feet in display area, indicating the address of a building. 2. A sign on a residential property, of less than four (4) square feet in display area, stating the name of the owner or occupant in addition to the address of the property. 3. Traffic control signs, related directional aids, and traffic control devices installed by a unit of government having authority over the adjacent right-of-way, or at the direction of such a government. 4. Signs not visible from a public or private right-of-way. Updated January 2025 — Gem Lake Consolidated Land Use Ordinance No. 131 96