§ 13-1-323. General Signage Regulations.

The regulations contained in this Section apply to signs in all districts:

(a)

Sign Prohibitions and Limitations.

(1)

No sign shall use any word, phrase, symbol, shape, form, or character in such manner as to interfere with moving traffic, including signs which incorporate typical street-type and/or traffic control-type signage designs and colors.

(2)

No fluttering, undulating, swinging, rotating, or otherwise moving signs, pennants or other decorations shall be permitted except for time and/or temperature signs.

(3)

No illuminated flashing signs shall be permitted. Flashing signs are those which change their appearance more than once every 30 seconds.

(4)

No illuminated sign shall be permitted unless the illumination of the sign is so designed that the lighting element is not visible from any property within a residential zoning district (per Section 13-1-41). All illuminated signs shall comply with the State Electrical Code, and limited to the hours of customer access.

(5)

No mobile or portable signs shall be permitted.

(6)

No off-premises directional signs shall be permitted for nongovernmental or noninstitutional uses or for any use outside of a public right-of-way. However, such signs are permitted within a public right-of-way per Subsection (b)(5), below, for government facilities, and schools.

(7)

No advertising signs shall be permitted except for small blue background information signs as provided within the right-of-way per applicable Wisconsin Statutes.
( Rationale: The adoption of Subsection (a)(7), above, reflects a formal finding of fact on the part of the City of Verona Plan Commission and Common Council that the prohibition of advertising signage furthers 2 compelling government interests: (a) The general public interest of reducing visual clutter caused by advertising signage which the City has determined is a significant cause of unsafe traffic conditions; and (b) The public interest served by furthering the implementation of the purposes of this Chapter and the City of Verona Comprehensive Master Plan in terms of limiting the further spread of strip commercial development — of which advertising signs are a primary contributor. Furthermore, the City of Verona advocates that this regulation leaves ample and adequate alternative channels of commercial speech communication for the messages portrayable on such advertising signs — namely distributed print media, broadcast media, and point-of-purchase display, and is narrowly defined so as to limit said prohibition to commercial speech on exterior signage.)

(8)

No inflatable permanent signs shall be permitted. Temporary inflatable signs are permitted for a period of 10 days, 4 times a year. Inflatable signs shall be approved by the Plan Commission through the site plan approval process.

(b)

Sign Location Requirements.

(1)

No sign shall be erected or maintained at any location where by reason of its position, wording, illumination, size, shape, or color it may obstruct, impair, obscure, interfere with the view or be confused with, any authorized traffic control sign, signal or device.

(2)

No sign shall be located within a required bufferyard (see Section 13-1-84).

(3)

No sign shall be mounted on a roof.

(4)

No sign, temporary or otherwise, shall be affixed to a tree or utility pole unless otherwise authorized by the Director of Public Works.

(5)

Private signs shall be allowed within road right-of-way lines only per the regulations of the City of Verona Public Works Department.

(6)

Projecting signs located over a vehicle circulation area shall not be permitted.

(7)

Pylon signs are not permitted in any residential district and may only be used to identify group developments (see Section 13-1-41).

(Ord. No. 04-672, § 3, 6-14-04; Ord. No. 05-686, § 1, 3-14-05)