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1.8. Master or Common Signage Plan No permit shall be issued for an individual sign requiring a pennit unless and until a Master Signage Plan or a Common Signage Plan for the zone lot on which the sign wil1 be erected has been submitted to the Director and approved by the Director as confonning with this section. Commentary. The purpose of this section is twofold. It pro- vides a master plan for signs on a zone lot or group of zone lots and provides a master record of signs on a zone lot or group of zone lots. Requiring planning and coordination of signs on a property will improve the streetscape even if the local government does not impose detailed substantive re- quirements. Requiring the plan as a master record of permit- ted and actual signage on a property accomplishes two functions. It provides those who administer the ordinance with information about what signs already exist on a site when they are considering a permit application for a new sign on the site, and it eliminates the need to recompute per- mitted sign area and numbers for a property every time a sign administratiol1 or enforcement question arises. because the master record contains that information. In short, this section provides significant benefits to the com- munity in administering its sign regulations. However, if a particular community does not wish to impose this require- ment, Section 1.8 can be deleted in its entirety: minor modifications to Sections 1.6and 1 13 wiII also be required to delete the references to Master Sign age Plans and Com- mon Signage Plans. 1.8.1. MasterSignage Plan. For any zone lot on which the owner proposes to erect one or more signs requiring a per- mit, unless such zone lot is included in a Common Signage Plan. the owner shall submit to the Director a Master Signage Plan containing the following: An accurate plot plan of the zone lot, at such scale as the Director may reasonably require; Location of buildings, parking lots, driveways, and landscaped areas on such zone lot; Computation of the maximum total sign area, the max- imum area for individual signs, the height of signs and the number of freestanding signs allowed on the zone lot(s) included in the plan under this ordinance; and An accurate indication on the plot plan of the proposed location of each present and future sign of any type, whether requiring a pennit or not, except that inciden- tal signs need not be shown. 1.8.2. Common Signage Plan. If the owners of two or more contiguous (disregarding intervening streets and alleys) zone lots or the owner of a single Jot with more Source: Sign Regu]ation for Small and Midsize Communitie!; Planning Advisory Ser\! Ü:e than one building (not including any acccssory building) file with the Director for such zone lots a Common Signage Plan conforming with the provisions of this sec- tion, a 2S percent increase in the maximum total sign area shall be allowed for each incJuded zone Jot. This bonus shall be allocated within each zone lot as the owner(s) elects. Commentary. The purpose of this section is to reward prop- erty owners who prepare and follow coordinated signage plans for the property. The ordinance section can be modified to benefit only individual property owners or only owners ,of shopping centers and other multitemmt prop- erties, since the major problem with uncoordinated signage occurs in multitenant properties. However, even a property under single ownership can become cluttered with uncoor- dinated signs, and there is considerable merit in encourag- ing owners of contigllOus properties to plan together. TIle 25 percent bonus is arbitrary and can be adjusted to meet local needs. This provision is, in a sense, a planned unit development (PUD) provision for signs. Like other PUD provisions, it can be múdif¡"ed to impose a minimum area re- quirement so that it will not apply to small properties. 1.8.3. Provisions of Common Signage Plan. The Com- mon Signage Plan shall contain all of the information re- quired for a Master Signage Plan and shall also specify standards for consistency among all signs on the zone lots affected by the Plan with regard to: Color scheme; Lettering or graphic style; Lighting; Location of each sign on the buildings; Material; and Sign proportions. Commentary. This section as drafted imposes no substarJ- tive requirements. but it could include such requirements. For example, this section might require that, to qualify for the bonus outlined in Section 1.8.2, signs be only woodelõ and extemal/y lighted or that each sign have only two colors plus black or white. 1.8.4. Showing Window Signs on Common or Master Sign age Plan. A Common Signage Plan or Master Signage Plan incJuding window signs may simply indicate the areas of the windows to be covered by window signs a,nd the ge.neral type of the window signs (e.g., paper af- {¡xed to window, painted, etched on glass, or some other material hung inside window) and need not specify the exact dimension or nature of every window sign. 1.8.5. limit on Number of Freestanding Signs Under Common Signage Plan. The Common Signage Plan, for ~II ~one Jots with muJtipJe uses or multiple users, shall hmJt the number of freestanding signs to a total of one for each street on which the zone lots incJuded in the pIan have frontage and shaJl provide for shared or common usage of such signs.