EMAIL MEETING NOTICE FROM GARY LOCKE, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Good Afternoon Everyone:
Attached are the materials for the next Joint Meeting to discuss the zoning code update. The meeting will be Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:30 PM. The Planning Commission has a meeting at 7:00 PM with one agenda item.
The topic for discussion will be the continued discussion of draft sign regulations. You may recall that we had reviewed a draft several months ago and there were a number of comments provided. I have prepared a new draft (known as the second revision) that incorporates a number of the comments. Attached to this email are the agenda for the meeting, the revised draft and a report from me which summarizes what has been revised, along with some commentary.
I hope to see you all on Tuesday evening assuming we are not snowed in!
Gary Locke, Community Development Director
Revised Code Section
CHAPTER 1165 SIGNAGE (VERSION 2)
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EMAIL MEETING NOTICE FROM GARY LOCKE, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Good Morning:
Since there still have been some delays in getting the design guidelines in final form, we will not have that item on the agenda for next week’s meeting. I am advised that the final draft of that document should be done by 10/23, and if so, we should be able to schedule the continuation of that discussion in November (11/17/09 to be exact).
I have been working on putting in ordinance form a new set of sign regulations for actual consideration since some desire has been expressed in seeing new sign regulations put in place sooner rather than later. As such, the attached draft is a first attempt to get something out for actual review. I will be providing an overview and summary of these draft sign regs and where they differ significantly from the existing regs at the meeting Tuesday evening. Also attached is the agenda for the meeting which will start at 7 PM since there is no regular Planning Commission meeting scheduled.
Just several quick points about the sign reg draft. The draft is primarily based on the Obetz, Ohio regulations with some additions to address what I believe are local issues to Kent based on our enforcement experience. You will also note some italicized text in the draft. This is wording that would be plugged in assuming that 1) the new zoning chapters, which will be slightly renumbered, are adopted; 2) that we expand the implementation of the Civil Infraction enforcement mechanism into the zoning code; and 3) that the design guidelines and an ordinance mandating their enforcement are adopted. I at least wanted to give the committee some idea of how those items would be plugged in to this part of the ordinance. Last, the draft is 30 pages long, which makes it about twice the length of the existing ordinance. I am somewhat concerned about the length, but the draft does contain the definitions that used to be in the Definition chapter of the zoning code as well as a lot more “process” that was missing from the current code. Since this is a first draft, we should feel free to suggest and make changes as needed.
I hope to see you all there next Tuesday.
Gary Locke, Community Development Director
Click Here to Read the Draft Sign Regulation
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EMAIL Update from Gary Locke, Community Development Director, 3/2/10
Good Morning:
Attached you will find two documents. The first is what I believe will be the final draft of the Sign Chapter of the Zoning Code heading into the public comment phase of the review. This is the draft that we have been working on since last fall. At this point the plan is to invite public input on the draft and then make any changes that may be warranted after public input is received, before starting the formal zoning amendment process with the sign chapter (and probably other chapters already discussed).
The second document is in its first draft but is related to the Sign Chapter. This is the proposed sign design guidelines, which will be called Appendix B in the zoning code. The intent is to have some guidelines specifically related to signage that can be used in areas of the City not covered by a Design Overlay District (i.e. the downtown area). If an area is covered by a Design Overlay District, any regulations in that district applicable to signs / buildings would apply and supercede these general guidelines. Since this is the first draft, I would invite written comments on the document at this point but do not want to spend a lot of time on it, nor do I believe that we need to have a joint meeting. If there is an overriding demand to have some group discussion on this, we can schedule something for this purpose. If you have any comments on the proposed Sign Design Guidelines, please forward them to me by Tuesday, March 9, 2010.
CHAPTER 1165 SIGNAGE (Public Comment Draft)
Appendix B Sign Design Guidelines
