Logan OKs electric sign ordinance

[Erik Sine]

Logan OKs electric sign ordinance

By Emilie H. Wheeler

Published:

Thursday, July 17, 2008 1:35 AM CDT

Logan’s elected leaders approved an ordinance regulating electronic signs just days before a moratorium on the reader boards is set to expire.

After a six-month stop on new installations, Logan businesses in the commercial and industrial zones can now put up new electronic signs — but there are new rules to follow.

Signs cannot have effects such as flashing, starbursts or animation but can have video. And while dissolving, fading and traveling text will be allowed, transitions such as scrolling and other movement are prohibited. Traveling is typically text that moves from right to left, while scrolling text moves from top to bottom.

Representatives from Young Electric Sign Company, which designs many local electronic signs, said some language in the new ordinance is confusing.

“The line is blurred and I don’t know where it stops and starts at times,” said Wes Van Dyke of YESCO. “Many of the things we think are video are actually animation.”

Van Dyke did say YESCO appreciates the middle ground the ordinance represents; many regulations in earlier drafts were more stringent than what was in the document approved Tuesday by the Municipal Council.

“I think we’ve come a long, long ways from where we were a couple months ago,” he said.

No city ordinance prior to this has addressed the high-tech signs.

Other new standards will include brightness, which will be regulated depending on which color is displayed and whether it’s day or night.

Additionally, each message or advertisement must remain on the screen for at least six seconds, except for video presentations.

Signs are limited to 48 square feet or smaller.

While new signs must comply with new rules, existing non-conforming signs have more latitude.

Councilman Steve Thompson, who was one of three to vote for the approval of the ordinance, questioned if the “offending sign,” which brought the issue to light, would even be affected by the new law.

“So, they can go back to blasting it and doing anything they want?” he asked.

Logan Senior Planner Tavis Austin said while that could occur with some existing signs, the one referenced — at about 1200 South and U.S. Highway 89/91 — had toned down its brightness for at least 90 days, which prohibits its operations in the future.

The city could make more tweaks in the ordinance, as YESCO and community development officials said they’d work further on defining language — like what constitutes a video versus animation.

Councilwoman Laraine Swenson cast the only vote against approving the document based on concerns with allowing video.

“I would really like to see us remove the video and go back to the original proposal,” she said. “I think we’re going to be sorry down the road. ... In my mind, this is the time to slowly approach this.”

Thompson joined Herm Olsen and Jay Monson, who voted for the proposal. Council Chairwoman Tami Pyfer was out of the state and did not vote.

[manuellynch]

thanks for posting this article - it does show how it is going to get incredibly confusing as other cities adopt their own codes for this. It does seem odd in Las Vegas that LED billboard signs cannot use any animation but the signs on highway 15 for the hotels can...they are in Paradise. However there is an LED billboard sign in Paradise that cannot use simple animation.

Too complicated - I think getting the strippers to stand on the corner holding a sign is more effective...and hell if the sign could have neon on it (something you can see during the day time) it would be even better.