City Council Minutes 2006 10 03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes October 3, 2006 Page 12 of 15 Planning Director Paul Wood explained Ordinance No. 1499, Series 2006, if authorized, would adopt amendments to the Louisville sign codes and regulations. The Ordinance amends both Chapter 17.24 of the Louisville Municipal Code (LMC) and the Commercial Development Design Standards and Guidelines (CDDSG) to ensure consistency between the LMC and the design standards, which were adopted subsequent to the last amendment of the LMC. While Ordinance No. 1499, Series 2006 addresses the entire section of the LMC (Section 17.24) the primary focus of the review was commercial sign standards. The scope of the amendment process reviewed and modified sign standards only for commercial retail and commercial office uses. The amendment does not address industrial sign standards or standards for the Downtown Louisville Business District. The recommendations of the Planning Commission are forwarded based upon the Commissions intent to ensure that the sign code promoted the following: 1. Raise public awareness of Louisville's goods, services, and cultural assets. 2. Promote way-finding and traffic safety. 3. Promote a regulatory environment which enables signage to communicate effectively to the street. 4. Discourage unnecessary proliferation of signage. 5. Promote a design standard which provides sufficient uniformity and flexibility. The format of the proposed changes is a reflection of the Planning Commission's intent to organize the information in a manner which is clear and easy to follow for users of the code. A number of sections were merged; redundancies were eliminated, with particular emphasis placed on ensuring that the standards of the LMC were consistent with the standards in the CDDSG and the Industrial Development Design Standards and Guidelines (IDDSG). The Planning Commission conducted a series of six public hearings on the sign code amendment between February 9, 2006 and July 20, 2006. At the July 20, 2006 public hearing, the Planning Commission, by a vote of 5:0, approved a motion to forward a recommendation of support to the City Council. The Commission requested Staff forward to the City Council a summary of a discussion related to placing a restriction in the code, which would require illuminated monument signage to be turned off at a certain time each evening. This discussion was initiated by a request from the Cherrywood HOA that included a provision where the illumination of monument signage would be prohibited during certain hours. While there was some support for such a restriction, the Commission did not agree on a fixed time, which would accommodate all retailers and restaurants.