It took almost nine months, but Pulaski County’s regulations on campaign signs have finally been repealed. The county commissioners agreed to repeal the “special signs” portion of the county’s Unified Development Ordinance Monday.
Plan Administrator Doug Hoover said that followed some clarification from the advisory plan commission. “The special sign ordinance repeal was tabled at the commissioner meeting in October due to the confusion of wording,” he reminded the commissioners. “The repeal has been updated to show the existing wording with strike-through, and it reflects the entire special sign section of the ordinance. This was voted on by the APC on November 26, 2018.”
Concerns with the “special signs” language were first brought to the commissioners back in March. A Supreme Court decision a few years ago discourages local zoning jurisdictions from regulating signs based on their content. Instead, the more general “special signs” language is meant to govern things like the number and size of signs that may be placed on a given property.
But members of the Pulaski County Election Board felt the regulations created more confusion and called for their removal. They noted that the placement and content of campaign signs are already governed by a completely separate set of state and federal laws.
At one time or another, the county commissioners and advisory plan commission had voiced support for removing the “special signs” regulations from the Unified Development Ordinance, but until now, they hadn’t followed the necessary procedure to formally make the change.
