City looking at sign code

Those small toss-away signs advertising weight-loss plans, at-home business opportunities and loan offers are irritants to Karen Byrd.

Byrd, a neighborhood organizer and member of the Spokane Plan Commission, would be happy to get rid of such small signs littering the public right of way.

Plan Commission members have been working several years on rules to govern how many signs property and business owners can erect, how big and how tall those signs can be, where they can be located and what sorts of technological features can be employed.

It can be a touchy issue.

Some want signs to be as unobtrusive as possible, simply identifying a business and nothing more.

Others want their signs to be bold and to command attention.

The existing sign code hasn’t been updated since the 1950s and doesn’t address many things, including new flashing LED signs.

“We’re completely rewriting it,” said City Planner Ken Pelton.

The proposal is still in an early stage, and no public hearing is scheduled, but the sign code is being discussed at the Plan Commission’s regular meetings if the public wants to hear the latest news.

The only kind of signs to be newly regulated over the past 10 years are “non-premises” signs like billboards. New billboards are prohibited.

The code will amend regulations for on-premises signs – those for the businesses at that site, Pelton said.

Heights are likely to be reduced in some areas from a 35-foot maximum to a 20-foot maximum, Pelton said.

At this time signs are largely unregulated along major commercial arterials like Division Street. The new code would propose some limits. A current proposal is to limit the size of signs along such corridors to 200 square feet in size and 25 feet in height.

Flashing portions of LED signs would be limited to prevent driver distraction.

Temporary signs, like those Byrd dislikes, are already banned under the current code, she said. The problem is that portion of the code is unenforceable, Byrd said.

“The new one will be enforceable,” she said. “I’m speaking as a neighbor. That would be so good.”