Last evening (4/18/23), the City of Maricopa City Council discussed proposed changes to the updated draft temporary sign ordinance.
WeSERV member Andrea Jackson spoke to Council regarding her concerns on the sign spacing portion of the draft. She requested clarification from the city to know how the city would determine which signs were in compliance with the 10 foot distance between signs.
Her well taken point was that if she placed a sign at 10am and someone else placed a sign at 11am next to her sign instead of 10 feet away, how would the City determine which sign was in violation?
WeSERV also remarked on the proposed changes to the draft temporary sign ordinance. In addition to reiterating the above point, WeSERV asked for clarification for signage distance. Is the restriction between all signs in a location? or between each particular entity’s signs?
WeSERV also pointed out and suggested the asterisk language in Table 18.115.120 be attached to the item number in the table so it is clear to what the language refers.
Additionally, WeSERV requested more graphics and illustrations be contained in the ordinance document so that staff and the public can better understand placement and dimensions of temporary signs.
We were pleased to hear the Council discussion on items to enhance the proposed temporary sign ordinance such as a longer period of time before and after an event to place and retrieve signs. Two hours appears to be the amount of time under consideration.
Council also discussed a distance of five feet between signs (instead of 10 feet) and referred to a previous discussion regarding distance between signs for a particular entity. Additional consideration is being given to the distance between signs if it is determined the ordinance distance should be between all signage in a location. How will the city determine who is in violation?
WeSERV thanks the City of Maricopa Council and staff for their consideration of our previous comments and look forward to working with them on further revisions.
You can read the proposed draft updated sign ordinance and follow the city’s updates at City of Maricopa website.