Planners Gain More Understanding of Sign Codes Post Supreme Court Ruling
More than 700 local planners from around the country learned how to better navigate sign codes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. A webcast conducted by nationally known planning law expert Alan Weinstein and prominent planner Wendy Moeller, provided a good understanding of developing and enforcing sign codes after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a small church in Gilbert Ariz. The webcast is available at this link.
The church alleged that varying sign codes for different types of temporary signs was not content neutral and violated its First Amendment rights. Weinstein, a professor who holds a joint faculty appointment at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and also serves as Director of the Colleges’ Law & Public Policy Program. Moeller is author of the new Best Practices in Regulating Temporary Signs, released by the Signage Foundation, Inc.
In addition to the presentation, planners were able to ask the experts for more information on issues they were confronting. Among the questions were distinctions between regulating commercial and non-commercial signs, and dealing with differences between on- and off-premise signs.
The webinar, provided in conjunction with state and regional American Planning Association chapters, is the latest effort to educate planners about the Reed v. Town of Gilbert case, which was decided by the Supreme Court in June. Weinstein also provided written guidance for planners, released by the Signage Foundation.
ISA has created materials to help the sign and visual communications industry understand the potential impact of the Reed case as well. This was the third webcast that ISA has put on in conjunction with the APA consortium in the last year, with the other two focusing on Signs & the Downtown Experience and How to Effectively Regulate EMCs. More than 1,200 planners and other local officials participated in these three webinars combined.
James Carpentier, ISA’s manager of state and local government affairs, moderated the recent planner webcast. Contact Carpentier to learn more.
