We may be at the end of the beginning for a new sign ordinance

This may be the “end of the beginning” of the work to draft a new ordinance regulating signs in New Albany. Monday, April 23, a friend at city hall furnished NAnewsweb.com with what is characterized as a “near final draft” of the proposed new ordinance.

The current New Albany sign ordinance has been the source of innumerable problems since it went into force 12 years ago in June, 2006. There is no need to review the problems here. They have been the subject of many news articles and opinion pieces on NAnewsweb.com and elsewhere in local news media.

During her very first meeting as a member of the New Albany city board, First Ward Alderwoman Amy Livingston had the sign ordinance placed on the agenda. She thus commenced what most would agree was the first serious effort to correct the many inherent problems with the old sign ordinance. Livingston and others started working on correcting the sign ordinance problems.

At the November 7, 2017, meeting of the Board of Aldermen, Livingston announced that she and her working group had completed a draft of a new sign ordinance. She circulated it by email the next day with the subject line: “Sign Ordinance — Rough Rough Draft.” That first draft has been revised and revised and revised still more during the last six months. Livingston, City Attorney Regan Russell, and Code Enforcement Officer Eric Thomas are the core group working on the ordinance, but several other people have also been involved. Changes have been made, then un-made, as the working group discussed it and received input from numerous interested individuals.

The new sign ordinance has been scheduled for a public hearing during the regular June 5, 2018, meeting of the Board of Aldermen. It is expected that the board will hear from anyone who wishes to make criticisms and comments during that hearing. The board will then have the opportunity to make corrections and amendments to the ordinance in response to public comment and the thoughts of individual aldermen.

City hall sources have told NAnewsweb.com that the new sign ordinance, with whatever amendments may have been made, will likely be put to a vote during the July 3 meeting of the aldermen. That date will be two days less than a full year since Alderwoman Livingston first had the matter put on the board’s agenda at its July 5, 2017 meeting.

Here, for the examination and analysis of everyone concerned, is the “near final” draft of the new sign ordinance:  Sign ordinance near final draft 23APR2018 (1)