To protect the health, safety and welfare of the community.

To equitably distribute the privilege of using the public environs to communicate private information.

To safeguard the public use and nature of the streets and sidewalks.

To protect and enhance the visual environment of the City.

To prevent the diminishing of property values within the City.

To minimize visual distractions to motorists using the public streets.

As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:

Sign categories shall be defined as follows:

Official governmental signs, such as but not limited to traffic or similar regulatory signs.

Identification signs, not to exceed six square feet in surface area, bearing only addresses or names of occupants of the premises and located on privately owned property.

Signs displayed for the direction or convenience of the public, including signs which identify rest rooms, and the location of public telephones, public entrances, freight entrances or the like, provided that such signs do not exceed a total surface area of three square feet per sign on any lot or parcel.

Memorial signs or bulletin boards.

Yard sale signs and the like, provided that such signs shall not be attached in any way to utility poles, meter posts or trees within any public street right-of-way. No person shall put up any notice upon any building, wall, fence or other property of another person without having first obtained the consent of the owner or lessee of such property. The maximum time limit for the display of such signs is three consecutive days.

Signs on the inside of store windows, except those signs specified in § 160-127C and H, which shall not be so excluded.

"No trespassing," "no dumping," "no parking," and other similar signs not exceeding two square feet.

Signs displayed during the month of December for the purpose of selling Christmas trees and other holiday vegetation and accessory items

Portable signs.

A sign which imitates or approximates an official highway sign or carries the word STOP or DANGER, or any sign which obscures a sign displayed by public authority for the purpose of giving traffic instruction or direction or other public information.

A sign which displays flashing or intermittent lights or lights of changing degrees of intensity; however, time and weather informational signs, traffic signals, railroad crossing signals and other official warning or regulatory signs are excluded.

A sign which obstructs any window or door opening used as a means of egress or which prevents free passage from one part of a roof to any other part thereof, and a sign which interferes with an opening required for ventilation.

A sign in a public right-of-way that interferes with the use of that right-of-way. Any sign existing or allowed in a public right-of-way may be ordered removed by the Administrator upon 30 days' notice if the use of that right-of-way is changed to require the sign's removal or if the public right-of-way is to be used for any public purposes inconsistent with the existence of the sign.

A sign or illumination that causes any glare into or upon any building or land other than the building and land to which the sign is necessary.

A sign that violates any provision of any federal or state law relative to outdoor advertising.

Moving signs, pennants and streamers, except as provided in § 160-129C; balloons; striplights; striplights outlining structures and used to attract attention for commercial purposes; and signs attached, painted or mounted to unlicensed and inoperative or generally stationary vehicles.

Billboards.

Signs which project more than 18 inches over any publicly maintained sidewalk.

Any nonconforming sign that advertises a business which is no longer operating at that site.

No sign that was not in existence and in place on the date of amendment of this chapter shall hereafter be displayed, and no sign existing on that date shall be enlarged, relocated, changed or modified until a sign permit for the same has been obtained in accordance with this section and all applicable regulations of the Administrator. The maintenance, repair or restoration of nonconforming signs must be in accordance with § 160-130B under a permit issued in accordance with this section.

Every application for such permit shall include a sketch of the property, indicating the exact area, size, structures, design, location, color, lighting and materials for the proposed signs on the property.

Fees for sign permits shall be as fixed from time to time by the governing body.

A sign permit shall become null and void if the work for which the permits was issued has not been completed within a period of 60 days.

Sales and special events signs, which shall be removed within three days after the event.

Signs used for construction on or the development of a lot will be allowed as the basis of one sign per contractor, not more than 12 square feet in area, or one sign, not exceeding 100 square feet in area, giving the names of the contractors, engineers and architects. These signs are to be allowed only during the time such construction or development is actually in progress.

Pennants and streamers without advertising may be displayed simultaneously with temporary signs, but at no other time.

Street banners advertising a public entertainment or event, if specially approved by the City Manager and only for locations designated by the City Manager, during and for 14 days before and several days after such event.

Except where otherwise provided, in cases where signs existing as of the date of the amending of this chapter exceed the total allowable sign area for the subject parcel, no additional signs shall be permitted thereon.

All nonconforming signs may be maintained and repainted but shall not be maintained in such a manner as to increase the degree of nonconformity. A nonconformity sign may be repaired, provided that it had not been damaged in excess of 50% of its replacement value. The procedure for determining the percentage of damage will be determined by requiring the owner to obtain quotes from a sign company on the cost to replace and the cost to repair the sign. Any freestanding nonconforming sign which does not exceed current requirements for height, size or setback by more than 50% may be modified so long as the proposed modification brings the nonconforming sign into conformity with the provisions of this article in terms of size, height or setback. A permit shall be required for the repair or modification of any nonconforming sign.

Upon vacating all premises, the tenant or, in his absence, the owner shall remove all nonconforming signs, sign supports and attendant hardware.

Owners of nonconforming signs must register these signs with the Administrator within three months of the amendment of this chapter or remove the sign

The general provisions of this chapter.

The district sign regulations of this chapter for the district in which such signs are located.

All applicable provisions of the building code of the City, as adopted, and all amendments thereto of the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code.

Permitted signs; size.

Location. All freestanding signs shall be a minimum of 10 feet from the closer right-of-way line of a street 50 feet or greater in width and a minimum of 35 feet from the center line of any street right-of-way less than 50 feet in width. Corner lots must also meet the requirements of § 160-145 of the Zoning Ordinance concerning visibility at intersections.

Height limitations. No freestanding sign shall exceed eight feet in height.

Lighting. Lighted signs or signs illuminated by a light shall not cast a glare on adjacent properties.

Number of signs permitted. No establishment shall be permitted more than two signs, excluding permitted directional signs.

Conditional uses in residential districts shall be permitted following a public hearing and approval as set forth in Articles XVI and XVIII. Conditional uses shall be one or more of the following uses:

Permitted signs; size.

Location. All signs, unless otherwise stated, shall be subject to the same setback and yard requirements as other structures.

Number of signs permitted. Excluding public service signs, only one sign shall be permitted, except that a corner lot occupied by a single establishment shall be allowed up to two signs, as provided in § 160-138C.

Suspended and projecting signs. Sign of these types shall not be less than eight feet from the ground nor larger than 20 square feet.

Review by Design Committee. All sign permits for this district must be reviewed by the Design Committee.

Conditional uses in the Downtown Tax District shall be permitted following a public hearing and approval as set forth in Articles XVI and XVIII. Conditional uses shall be one or more of the following uses:

Permitted signs; size.

Freestanding signs. On lots with a public street right-of-way frontage of between 75 feet and 150 feet and a building setback of at least 15 feet, one freestanding sign will be allowed with a maximum area of 100 square feet and a maximum height of 20 feet. On lots with a public street right-of-way frontage of more than 150 feet, one freestanding sign will be allowed with a maximum area of 150 square feet and a maximum height of 30 feet. All such freestanding signs shall be set back at least five feet from the edge of pavement or behind the sidewalk, whichever is greater. No freestanding signs shall be allowed in this district on lots with less than 75 feet of public right-of-way frontage.

Determination of available frontage. Each freestanding sign existing on or proposed for a lot shall require a separate and distinct allotment of frontage as required in Subsection B. When more than one establishment is on a lot, the double counting of frontage shall not be permitted when determining frontage available for freestanding signs.

Number of signs permitted. Excluding public service signs, a maximum of three signs shall be allowed.

Business selling gasoline. Businesses selling gasoline will be allowed an additional nine square feet of signage for the purpose of displaying gas prices only.

Required frontage. More than one business may be combined to obtain the required frontage for a freestanding sign.

Conditional uses in business districts shall be permitted following a public hearing and approval as set forth in Articles XVI and XVII. Conditional uses shall be one or more of the following uses:

Permitted signs; size.

Number of signs permitted. Excluding public service signs, a maximum of two business signs per establishment shall be allowed.

Special sign regulations. All signs must be attached signs, except:

Conditional uses in industrial districts shall be permitted following a public hearing and approval as set forth in Articles XVI and XVII. Conditional uses shall be one or more of the following uses:

The area of an attached sign, where the sign consists of words, numbers or symbols painted on or affixed to a wall, shall be the entire area within a continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of each work, symbol, numeral, groups of symbols or groups of numerals where the symbols or numbers are meant to be read as a unit. Where there is a symbol that encompasses or partly encompasses the message of the sign, the sign area shall be the entire area within a continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of the symbol.

The area of a suspended, attached or projecting sign, where the letters, numerals or symbols are on a sign surface which is hung or affixed to a structure, shall be the total area of the hung or affixed surface.

The area of a freestanding sign shall be the total area of all surfaces, excluding poles, visible from the public right-of-way or other point from which the sign is intended to be viewed. Only one display face shall be measured in computing the total sign area where the sign faces are arranged to be viewed one at a time.

On corner lots, the front shall be either:

For business or industrial uses, the front shall not be a primary residential street. In cases where the front cannot be determined, the Administrator shall designate the front.

On corner lots where a building or buildings have more than one principal use, sign area shall be allowed for front linear footage as indicated in the district regulations and for 1/2 the side street frontage, provided that:

Completion of the application for a sign permit.

Review by the Administrator and, if the sign is located in the Downtown Tax District, review by the Design Committee.

Issuance of a sign permit with fee.