During Tuesday’s City Council strategic planning meeting, the Chattanooga–Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency unveiled a proposed new sign ordinance for the city of Chattanooga.
Officials said, "A sign ordinance is a set of regulations and rules established by local government to manage the placement, size, design, and maintenance of signs in the community. The proposed changes would be the first significant update to Chattanooga’s sign ordinance since the 1980s.
“Wanting to fix little-noticed but badly broken things like Chattanooga’s sign ordinance is one of the reasons I decided to run for mayor,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “From my time in the business world, I knew our sign ordinance and the enforcement of it were a mess. This updated ordinance will give local businesses and organizations clarity on how they can display signs and will bring some common sense to our policy. Among other things, this will mean more support from City Hall for public art and small business, with enforcement targeted at bad actors with obnoxious signage that degrades quality of life for Chattanoogans.”
In the last decade, there have been controversies around signs displayed by local businesses. In 2014, a local bakery owner was told a mural depicting flying donuts violated the city’s sign ordinance. Under this new ordinance, murals would be protected with reasonable guidelines. Meanwhile, new rules will be introduced to curtail flashing, moving digital signs that distract drivers and diminish quality of life, it was stated.
You can read the draft updated sign ordinance in full here.