§ 67-3. Purpose and findings.
(a)
Purpose. This chapter is enacted with the following purposes:
(1)
To protect the rights of individuals and businesses to convey their messages through signs;
(2)
To encourage the effective use of signs as means of communication;
(3)
To promote economic development;
(4)
To improve traffic and pedestrian safety as it may be affected by distracting signs;
(5)
To prevent the destruction of the natural beauty and environment of the county;
(6)
To protect the public health, safety, and general welfare;
(7)
To restrict the continued existence of abandoned or nonconforming signs unless in compliance with the terms of this chapter to eliminate, over time, all nonconforming signs;
(8)
To ensure the fair and consistent enforcement of sign standards; and
(9)
To provide an easier, quicker and more economically efficient way to apply for a sign review application.
(b)
Findings.
(1)
Paulding County finds that signs are a proper use of private property, are a means of personal free expression and a necessary component of a commercial environment. As such, signs are entitled to the protection of the law. In the absence of regulation, however, the number of such signs tends to proliferate, with property owners desiring ever increasing numbers and sizes of signs, leading to cluttered and aesthetically blighted thoroughfares. In addition, the competition among competing sign owners for visibility of their signs contributes to safety hazards for both vehicles and pedestrians and can undermine the sign owners' original purpose of presenting a clear message of their idea or identification of their premises.
(2)
Unsafe, cluttered and aesthetically blighted thoroughfares are a potential problem throughout the county. The county finds it imperative that signs along its corridor be within the driver's vision while attending to traffic so as to distract drivers for the minimal length of time. In addition to height limits, the competing interests requiring signage on county thoroughfares necessitate appropriate size limitation that will support visibility of all signs, not just a favored few. It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully controlled (Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 75 S. Ct. 98, 99 L. Ed. 27 1954).
(3)
Regulation of the size, height, number and spacing of signs throughout the county is necessary to protect the public safety, to assure compatibility of signs with surrounding land uses, to enhance the business and economy of the county to protect the public investment in the streets and highways, to maintain the tranquil environment of residential areas, to promote industry and commerce, to eliminate visual clutter and blights, to provide and aesthetically appealing environment, and to provide for the orderly and reasonable display of advertising for the benefit of all the county's citizens.
(4)
The county further finds that there is a substantial difference between signs erected by public authority and signs erected by private citizens or businesses. Signs erected by public authority are virtually all erected for the purpose of maintaining the public safety either through direct control of traffic or through provision of such type signage as street signs which enable the traveling public to know where they are located and to find where they are going. As such, virtually all government signs are erected purely for public safety purposes. The county finds that public utility signs are frequently of the same nature as those signs erected by governmental entities in that they provide necessary information to safeguard the public from downed power lines and from street excavations. Unregulated signage can degrade the utility of public signs.
(5)
The county finds that some signage has a single targeted function and that identification of such signage by description is impossible without referring to its function. For instance, address numerals are used for the sole purpose of locating addresses, which is of benefit to persons looking for those addresses and is essential to public safety personnel responding to emergencies. Which such signage is referenced based upon the function is serves within the context of this chapter, the bulk of the provisions of this chapter are unrelated to the content of the speech provided and allow maximum expressive potential to sign owners.
(6)
The county finds that advances in technology utilizing LED components results in signs much brighter in appearance for LED signs than for signs not utilizing LED technology. Studies who, particularly during non-daylight hours, that attention given by drivers to such signs is measurably longer than attention to non-LED signs. These findings have been reported by such diverse agencies as the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in its March 22, 2007 report on Driving Performance and Digital Billboards and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in its December 1994 Milwaukee County Stadium Variable Message Sign Study. As a result of these and other studies, the county has determined that use of LED technology on outdoor signage in the county along thoroughfares of various categories is detrimental to the public safety.
(7)
This chapter is adopted to serve substantial governmental interests of correcting and avoiding multiple problems that would occur without the regulation of signs. The regulations contained herein are no more extensive than necessary to serve the substantial governmental interests identified in this chapter. It is not the intent of this chapter to apply regulation to signs based upon the message that they convey. It is not the intent of this chapter to foreclose important and distinct mediums of expression for political, religious or personal messages. Furthermore, it is not the intent of the county, nor any of its boards, commissions, or agents, to regulate, in any manner, the message content of signs, expect to the extent of obscenity or other messages prohibited by state or federal law.
(8)
This chapter shall be a separate and distinct ordinance and not a part of the zoning ordinance.
(9)
Categories for zoning and land use as related to sign locations in section 67-25 of this chapter are defined by the zoning categories set forth in the Paulding County Zoning Ordinance.
(Res. No. 17-37, § 4 (Exh. A), 11-14-2017)