City Council

COLUMBIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION CITY HALL – 1840 SECOND STREET JUNE 12, 2012, 7:00 P.M. PLANNING COMMISSIONERS: Glen Pritchard, Chair *Denotes Commissioner absent Kenneth Wieland, Vice-Chair Lisa Bush* Nell Harrison* Kelly Niles* John Sachs Peter Tassoni STAFF: Lisa Smith, Planner Helen Johnson, Planning Administrative Assistant OTHERS: None MEETING TO ORDER: Glen called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Glen led the pledge of allegiance. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: IT WAS MOVED (PETER) AND SECONDED (KEN) TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE APRIL 10, 2012 MEETING, AS PRESENTED. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. CITIZEN INPUT AND REQUESTS: None. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Lisa S. explained the reason the city is going through a review of our sign ordinance is because of some fairly recent lawsuits addressing a violation of first amendment rights in other jurisdictions. The most significant change is that jurisdictions are not able to regulate the content of what is on the sign. Lisa S. presented a bold strike out copy and a revised clean copy of the Columbia City Sign Code to the Commissioners for review. Lisa S. stated she started with our existing code and brought it to the point of not being content based and she also used a model presented by the League of Oregon Cities that was created by a number of lawyers. She expressed that her goal COLUMBIA CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR SESSION June 12, 2012 Page 2 of 2 was to hopefully create a code that was shorter, a bit simpler and more understandable than the model. Lisa S. and the Commissioners reviewed the document at length. Some of the key topics discussed was the creation of a definition of event and that temporary signs could be placed for timelines that correspond with the timeline of the event; also discussed were temporary signs that did not cover an event would only be allowed for 30 days and that temporary signs were not to be placed in the right-of-ways. NEW BUSINESS: No meeting for July, but their should be a meeting in August to present the sign topic at public hearing. REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS: None. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:56 p.m. Glen Pritchard Planning Commission Chair Attest by: Helen K Johnson Planning, Building Administrative Assistant