Some Cedar Park businesses looking to put up signs may be dealing with different regulations after the city updated its sign ordinance last month.

Cedar Park City Council approved ordinance amendments in March, which apply both within the city limits and in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, said Chris Copple, the city’s director of development services.

The amendments grouped regulations by sign type and are meant to make the ordinance more user-friendly, Copple said. Changes range from affecting monument signs seen along minor and major roadways to window signs and flags, and the changes addressed different sign classes.

Some major changes allow certain signs to be closer to roadways for easier visibility, and permits are now required for all signs except window signs; flags; hand-held signs; and signs de minimus, or those under 1 square foot in size. A new sign program also allows certain businesses to increase sign heights. Variance requests will be considered by the city’s planning and zoning commission. 

The city of Cedar Park updated its sign ordinance last month, which apply both within the city limits and in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ.[/caption]

Amy Link, Cedar Park assistant director of development services, said the 2015 case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Reed v. the city of Gilbert, Arizona, made the ordinance assessment timely.

“It effectively said cities can no longer regulate signs by the content or message on the sign, and unfortunately for our city and many other cities, that’s how we primarily regulate signs,” Copple said. “The new code needs to be focused on the location and the physical form of the signs.”

City staff had accepted comments from individuals and business owners on the ordinance for the past 15 months. Realtors and the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce gave feedback regarding regulating open house signs during council meetings in February and March.

“We feel there’s some options that would accommodate open house signs and perhaps some other time-limited event-related signs without sort of opening the floodgates to any kind of temporary signs,” said Andrel Lubomudrov, senior policy analyst for the Austin Board of Realtors.

Chamber President Tony Moline said he appreciated the steps city staff took to work with the business community on signage.

“One of the reasons we ended up supporting the ordinance the way it was written was because it was fair for all businesses,” he said. “It didn’t choose one over another—it can’t.”

During the meetings, city staff also discussed regulating sandwich signs commonly seen outside of cafes and businesses. The original draft of the ordinance proposed that each of these signs require a permit, though the idea was questioned during a public hearing.

“We don’t want people to block the sidewalk. We want to make sure that they’re not too large,” Link said.

Council Member Cobby Caputo asked why business owners would have to apply for a permit when they wished to place a sign outside their business.

“I think it’s pushing a boundary to require a coffee shop to go to City Hall to get a permit to put a sign out,” he said. “I can see limiting the number of them, I can see limiting the size—there’s got to be something we have about blocking entryways or passageways.” City Council ultimately decided no permit was needed for sandwich signs.

Link said city staff is working on ways to educate the public on the amendments.

“There are lots of changes to this ordinance,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of education through the community.”