City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: MAY 4, 2016
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Introduction and First Reading. Consideration. Passage on First Reading of an Ordinance to Amend and Reordain Article G (Posting of Signs in the Right of Way) of Chapter 2 (Streets and Sidewalks) of Title 5 (Transportation and Environmental Services) of the Code of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, 1981, as Amended.
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ISSUE: Consideration of an amendment to the prohibition on signs in the right of way to clarify the enforcement.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that City Council:
1) Adopt the ordinance amending Article G to clarify that the Director of Planning and Zoning will direct all enforcement of this Article; and
2) Direct staff to coordinate a volunteer program to assist staff in the removal of signs in the right-of-way.
DISCUSSION: In June 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert that created the need for the City of Alexandria, and jurisdictions across the country, to revise its sign ordinance to address the content neutrality required by the First Amendment. As a first stage to this overall revision, the City Council adopted changes to regulations of signs in the right-of-way by removing the regulations from the zoning ordinance and adopting Article G (Posting of Signs in the Right of Way) in Chapter 2 of Title 5 of the City Code which prohibited the posting of any signs, other the governmental signs, in the right-of-way. (See staff report TA #2015-00005 dated January 23, 2016)
One of the goals of this change was to strengthen the enforcement mechanisms available to staff by including provisions that a) declared any sign in the public right-of-way to be a nuisance and b) allowed "any person..." to "...abate the nuisance...
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