Village Council considers new proposal for political sign laws

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by Lauren Krupar

Correspondent

Silver Lake -- Village officials decided Sept. 15 to wait until the day before the presidential election before discussing a proposed law to regulate political signs in Silver Lake.

"This is not something we need to rush through," Council Vice President Gerald Jones (at-large) said. "We can hold it until the first meeting of November. I don't see any reason to rush it."

Officials stopped enforcing Silver Lake's current political sign regulations after the ACLU said, in a letter to village officials, it felt the village's laws infringed on citizens' freedom of speech.

Current laws for political signs require a $5 sign deposit, a 2-foot-by-2-foot size limit and a 75-foot distance from one sign to another. In light of the ACLU's letter, officials decided to revisit the law.

In one proposal Village Council discussed, these and all restrictions on political signs would be eliminated.

However, for public safety reasons, Councilmembers decided Sept. 2 to investigate placing a time limit on the display of political signs tied to an event, such as November's presidential election, and a distance limit on sign placement from the right-of-way. Instead of repealing an entire section on political signs, Council hopes to amend the current laws to address the ACLU's concerns.

Village solicitor Robert Heydorn presented a proposed law which would limit political signs placement to at least 10 feet from the village's right-of-way, institute a time limit of 65 days on the display of political signs and restrict the size to no more than 24-square-feet and six feet high. No fee or distance requirement from one sign to another was proposed.

Heydorn said the size requirement would be consistent with village policy, making the limitations the "same for all signs regardless of political content."

"It would be hard to imagine that anybody would feel it necessary to produce a sign larger than that," he added.

In places where a road is bordering the property residents would begin measuring from the edge of the paved street. Meanwhile, people with a sidewalk bordering their property would measure from the edge of the sidewalk.

"We can't allow a political sign to go into the right-of-way," Heydorn said. "This takes a practical approach to enforcement of the ordinance rather than a precise tax-map definition."

Police Chief Gary DeMoss, whose department would be charged with enforcing any legislation, agreed.

"The whole business of the right-of-way is really complicated," DeMoss said. "That 10 feet space typically gives us a good line-of-sight approach for pulling in and out of a driveway."

The village currently requires signs such as garage and real estate signs to be at least 10 feet from the right-of-way.

The proposed amendments to the village's political sign code were tabled until Council's Nov. 3 meeting.

Village Council's next regular meeting is Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 2961 Kent Road. The finance and appropriations committee will meet to discuss the fiscal year 2009 budget on Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Village Hall.

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Phone: 330-686-3940