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Department of Community Development
Reference: Repeal of Political Sign Code
To: Mayor Richard N. McLean and Members of City Council
Through: Holly Prather, AICP, Community Development Director
Marv Falconburg, AICP, Assistant City Manager of Development
Clint Blackhurst, Acting City Manager
Prepared By: Mike Tylka, Associate City Planner
Date Prepared: August 9, 2017
PURPOSE
The City is requesting that the City Council repeal sections of the Land Use and Development Code that deal with political signs. This repeal is part of a three phase approach to addressing potential legal conflicts and/or necessary updates regarding the City's Sign Code. The first, and current phase, is to repeal the sections of the Code that deal with political signs. The next phase will be working on a Code amendment that will deal with all signs in the City of Brighton relating to recent court cases, and the third phase will be a complete overhaul of the entire sign code to deal with issues such as location, size, quantity, etc.
BACKGROUND
Brighton's Land Use and Development Code contains provisions on political signs that define them, set restrictions on their length of posting, size, and total aggregate area on one lot. The United States Supreme Court, in the case of Reed v. Town of Gilbert, found that the sign code of the Town of Gilbert, Arizona was unconstitutional due to content-based regulation. By this decision, a variety of signs, including political signs, are problematic as the applicable restrictions and requirements typically rely upon the subject matter or message of the sign itself thus limiting First Amendment-protected speech. The decision basically states that cities cannot regulate different forms of content differently from other like signs. Our current Code relating to political signs would not survive strict scrutiny. This level of scrutiny is the most rigorous standard of...
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