The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2222 , . . ~ ~ ~ ' . ..... - ~ .... .. ~.. ~., ~ # '" l " .... ORDINANCE NO. 2222 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING THE ARCADIA GENERAL PLAN TO SPECIFY A GOAL OF PROHIBITING SIGNS NOT COMMENSURATE WITH COMMERCIAL USES AS DETERMINED BY THE MUNICIPAL CODE (SUCH AS OFF PREMISE ADVERTISING SIGN BOARDS OR ROOFTOP SIGNS, OR ANIMATED SIGNS), AND TO RESTRICT SIGNS IN THE AREAS ZONED AS MlXED USE, HORSE RACING, OR SPECIAL USE TO SIGN TYPES SPECIFICALLY PERMITTED IN COMMERCIAL ZONES THE VOTERS OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. STATEMENT OF FINDINGS The voters of the City of Arcadia hereby find and declare the following: A. Arcadia is a picturesque, primarily residential community with features and characteristics long protected by a well planned and effective sign ordinance which has reduced and limited visual blight. B. The Arcadia General Plan requires that future development in Arcadia preserve important community views of the existing race track grandstands so that the grandstands remain recognizable from locations along Huntington Drive. C. Specific plans, zoning changes, and development agreements sought by developers should conform to the existing sign ordinances of the City in . . - . . . . . . . . .. . . . ~ ., - , " '" " '" order to maintain the features and characteristics that make Arcadia picturesque. D. Any proliferation in number, size and manner of signs, particularly signs used for outdoor off-premise advertising, unreasonably distracts operators of motor vehicles and promotes confusion with regard to traffic lights, signs, or signals or other interference with the effectiveness of traffic regulations and is therefore hazardous to motorists. E. Excessive and inadequately controlled proliferation of signs visible from public roads endangers the uniqueness of our community, our scenic beauty, and our mountain sightlines. F. Regulated directional signs offer businesses more effective means of announcing their presence to motorists with far less harm to our scenic beauty and community character. G. The loss of the community's uniqueness, character and scenic beauty will directly harm the City's tourist trade and economy. H. Prohibition of off-premise advertising signs, animated signs, off premise advertising rooftop signs, and billboards is both a necessary and narrowly tailored means to protect the public welfare, including safety on public streets, the preservation of the community's scenic beauty, character and distinctiveness, and the City's economic welfare. 2 2222 " " . " . -. . " .. ..... - ~ ... " .. ,.. A SECTION 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE A. The purpose of this Ordinance is to promote and protect the public health, safety and welfare by regulating existing and proposed signs of all types within the city in order to assure that they are: (1) Legible in the circumstances in which they are seen; (2) Compatible with their surroundings; (3) Appropriate to the type of activity to which they pertain; (4) Expressive of the identity of individual properties or of the community as a whole; and (5) Constructed, altered and repaired according to accepted and approved standards. B. As part of its purpose to promote and protect public health, this Ordinance is designed to promote traffic safety. To advance this interest, the Ordinance includes several provisions regarding the placement of directional signs, and it limits the use of signs which may interfere with traffic safety. 3 2222 . . . . -. . -, . - , #_ -. ~" r ,... C. A second purpose of this Ordinance is to preserve and protect the scenic beauty and distinctive community character of the City of Arcadia from the blight caused by unregulated, uncoordinated construction of billboards and signs throughout the municipality. D. A third purpose of this Ordinance is to protect the economy of the City of Arcadia from the loss of tourist and related revenue that will be caused as the result of urban blight resulting from unregulated, uncoordinated construction of billboards and signs throughout the municipality. SECTION 3. GENEML PLAN AMENDMENTS A. The Arcadia General Plan, Chapter 2.0, Community Development, Section titled General Plan Approach, Subsection titled Community Development Goals beginning on page 2-2 and ending on page 2-3 shall be amended as set forth below to add the following underlined sentence at page 2 -3: GENERAL PLAN APPROACH Community Development Goals It is the goal of the City of Arcadia to: - direct the amount and location ofland uses in a manner which enhances the environmental, social, physical, and economic well-being of Arcadia; - define and preserve the specific attributes which comprise Arcadia's identity as a "Community of Homes" and provides for their long-term 4 2222 . - . . . - . protection; - provide housing opportunities for all economic segments of the community; - protect the integrity and quality of existing residential neighborhoods; - ensure that issues of open space protection, environmental resources, public health and safety, and provision of municipal services and facilities are reflected in the location, intensity, style, and quality of development within the City; - provide for the retail and commercial service needs of Arcadia residents; - provide appropriate opportunities for employment-generating office and industrial uses in a manner consistent with the overall character of the community; - reserve adequate land for the provision of public and quasi-public services and facilities for Arcadia residents and businesses; - ensure an adequate supply of lands which can generate a municipal revenue stream which furnishes the City with the long-term ability to continue providing a high level of services to its residents and businesses; and - maintain the community's unique aesthetic and scenic beauty by prohibiting signs that are not commensurate with commercial uses as 5 2222 . . . . ~ . ~ . determined by the Municipal Code of Arcadia, such as off premise advertising rooftop signs, animated signs, and off-premise advertising sign boards. B. The Arcadia General Plan, Chapter 6.0, Implementation and Monitoring, Subsection Development Review and General Plan Consistency, shall be amended to add the following underlined paragraph at the end of the section at Page 6-25: Signage 54. Signage proposed in areas zoned as Mixed Use, Horse Racing or Special Use under either this General Plan or the Municipal Code shall be limited to sign types specifically permitted under the Municipal Code in those land use zones designated under the General Plan or the Municipal Code as "commercial" (e.g., CoO, C-l, C-2, C-3, C-M, C-C, CPD-l and CBD zones). All Specific Plans and Development Agreements between the City and any developer shall conform to and be consistent with the Arcadia Municipal Code sign ordinances in effect at the time a Specific Plan or a Development Agreement is adopted. No Specific Plan or Development Agreement may permit a sign unless such sign type is specifically allowed under the Municipal Code within those land use zones designated under the General Plan or the Municipal Code as "commercial" (e.g., C-O, C-l, C-2, C-3, C- 6 2222 ~ c c . - . M, C-C, CPD-l and CBD zones). SECTION 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS MEASURE Effective Date: A. This Ordinance shall be effective on the day that the vote is declared by the legislative body, and shall go into effect 10 days after that date, pursuant to Elections Code Section 9217. However, pursuant to Government Code Section 65358, if the General Plan of the City of Arcadia has been previously amended four or more times in the calendar year in which this measure takes effect, the amendments to the General Plan enacted by this measure shall take effect and be the first amendment to the Genera] Plan in the subsequent calendar year. B. Upon the effective date of this Ordinance, the City and its departments, boards, commissions, officers and employees, shall not grant, or by inaction allow to be approved by operation oflaw, any general plan amendment, zone change, specific plan, tentative or final subdivision map, conditional use permit, building permit, certificate of occupancy, business license or any other ministerial or discretionary permit or approval which is inconsistent with this measure. SECTION 5. SEVERABILITY. If any provision of this Ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid or 7 2222 '" - ., unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect any other provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Ordinance are declared to be severable. The City Council and the electorate by referendum do hereby declare that they would have adopted this Ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause phrase, or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that anyone or more sections, subsections, clauses, phrases, parts or portions thereof, be declared invalid or unconstitutional. SECTION 5. This Ordinance shall not be amended nor repealed except by a subsequent vote of the voters of the City of Arcadia. SECTION 6. The Mayor shall certify to the passage and adoption of this Ordinance by the electorate voting thereon on the 7th day of November, 2006. I hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance was passed, approved and adopted by the People of the City of Arcadia on the 7th day of November, 2006. Dated: January /0 ,2007 M or of the City of Arcadia ATTEST: ~>~ ity Clerk of the City of Arcadia 8 2222 . - . , - , - APPROVED AS TO FORM: ~r.~ Stephen P. Deitsch City Attorney 9 2222