Committee votes to move sign rules out of zoning to ease later amendments

The committee considered an ordinance to move Gardner's sign regulations from Chapter 675 (zoning) into a new non-zoning Chapter 665 to provide more flexibility for future amendments. Mayor (speaker 3) said the administrative move would make later code edits easier and allow staff to gather testimonials from local business owners about specific sign-related challenges.

"Moving the sign ordinance out of zoning into a regular ordinance so it has a little more flexibility for people to be more business friendly," the mayor said, describing outreach to impacted business owners. The mayor emphasized this is a procedural first step; any substantive changes to sign rules will require a subsequent amendment and public hearing.

Chair moved to recommend to the full council that it adopt the ordinance change to move the sign article out of zoning. The committee took a voice vote and the motion passed; the chair and staff noted that a council public hearing will be required before the city adopts any amended sign regulations.

Next steps: staff will continue stakeholder outreach, prepare ordinance language for council packets and schedule the required public hearing before the council considers final adoption.