Like many cities, Los Angeles prohibits off-site commercial signs for purposes of promoting traffic safety and community aesthetic character.
Continue Reading Commercial-Noncommercial and Onsite-Offsite Distinctions Upheld Under California Constitution
The Town of Southeast’s sign regulations provided an exemption from permitting for political signs, so long as their placement did not exceed 21 days. In 2011, the code was amended to provide that the posting could occur up to 21 days before the event being advertised, and the signs had to be removed five days after the event. Durational limits were not placed on other types of noncommercial signage. In 2011, the plaintiff was charged in town court with a violation of the sign regulations for posting her political signs in the right-of-way and more than five days after an election. In 2013, the Town amended the code again to limit the number of political signs to one per candidate per parcel. In 2014, the Town amended the sign code to create strict limitations on all temporary signs, but exempted construction signs, portable business signs, real estate “for sale” signs, holiday decorations, agricultural produce advertising, and some other signs.
Continue Reading New York Town’s Political Sign Regulations Found Invalid
Brigitte Vosse, a Manhattan designer and resident of New York City’s Upper West Side, can no longer display her illuminated peace sign in the window of her top-floor condominium unit in the famed 111-year-old Ansonia building, now that a federal district court has ruled that New York City’s ban on illuminated signs extending more than 40 feet above curb level has been found content neutral and a proper time, place, and manner restriction on speech. Although the law in question excepted flags, banners, or pennants on lots containing civic, philanthropic, educational, or religious community facilities, the federal district court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals both found that the law was content neutral. Back at the district court, the court found that the restriction on illuminated signs above 40 feet was supported by a significant governmental purpose—aesthetic quality—and that the restriction was narrowly tailored to that interest. The court also found that, because Vosse could display a non-illuminated version of her sign, ample alternative channels were available for conveying her message.
Continue Reading New York City Can Force Resident to Remove High-Rise Peace Sign
The Village of Downers Grove, Illinois survived federal and state law challenges to its sign code after a federal district court found the code to be content neutral under the standard articulated in the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. Plaintiff Robert Peterson owns a business called Leibundguth Storage & Van Service, Inc., which painted large signs advertising its business on the walls of its brick building in Downers Grove. The village’s sign ordinance banned painted wall signs and limited the size and number of wall signs. Peterson argued that the sign code was content based because it exempted government signs, railroad signs, address signs, noncommercial flags, real estate signs, and decorations, among other sign types, from the village’s permitting requirement.
Continue Reading Illinois Village Survives Sign Code Challenge
In Central Radio, Inc. v. City of Norfolk, a case that was caught up in the maelstrom surrounding the Supreme Court’s decision in Reed, the Fourth Circuit reversed its previous decision upholding the Norfolk, Virginia sign code, finding that the code contained content based restrictions on speech. In this case, which we reported