§ 15.1. Intent.

The City of Parchment finds that signs and other visual outdoor advertising tends to promote commerce and can impact the health, safety, and/or general welfare of the residents of the city, and that the preservation of the existing character of the community requires regulation of signs and of other visual outdoor advertising.

The city finds that failure to regulate the size, location, and construction of signs and other outdoor advertising may have an adverse effect upon the promotion of business and commerce in the city, may lead to poor identification of businesses, may have an adverse effect upon the existing aesthetic character of the city, and may cause deterioration of business and residential areas of the community.

Therefore, the purpose of this section and the subsections thereunder is to permit such signs and visual outdoor advertising as will not, by reason of their size, location, or manner of display, endanger public health and/or safety; confuse or mislead traffic; or obstruct vision necessary for traffic and pedestrian safety; and further, to regulate signs and other visual outdoor advertising in such a way as to prevent the placement of signs, and such other visual outdoor advertising in a manner that will conceal or obscure other signs and other visual outdoor advertising on adjacent businesses; to keep the number of signs and sign messages at a minimum level reasonably necessary to identify a business and its products; to keep signs within a reasonable scale with respect to the buildings to which they relate; and further, to prevent off-premise signs from conflicting with business, residential and public land uses, and to prohibit signs and other visual outdoor advertising which will have an adverse effect upon the existing aesthetic character of not only the zoning district in which they are located, but also upon the overall existing aesthetic character of the city.