A Solution for the Sign Blight on Scenic Corridors

To: Scottsdale’s Mayor and City Council

From: Friends of the Scenic Drive

The local effort to protect our environment from visual pollution is decades old. The creation of the Desert Foothills Scenic Drive in the early 60s led Maricopa County to ban billboards along the Scenic Drive. Since 1994 Friends of the Scenic Drive has been an advocate for the elimination of unnecessary signs, which have appeared in recent years, from our scenic roads. And we have put our time and effort where our rhetoric is. The purpose of this letter is to summarize specific recommendations for ordinance changes.

At the last hearing on the sign ordinance text change, no real direction was given to staff, other than to accept more input from outside interests. Friends was disappointed by this lack of direction. We therefore respectively request that you give serious consideration to the amendments proposed in this letter. We urge you to instruct staff to implement them in the next draft to be considered.

If the City of Scottsdale decides that our text amendment proposals are not appropriate, we respectfully request a written explanation as to why they are not acceptable. Frankly, we believe Friends and local residents have earned the right to expect a serious response.

Efforts to Reduce Sign Pollution

The Friends of the Scenic Drive, along with other groups, has worked hard to eliminate sign clutter along our roadways, particularly on our scenic corridors. We have:

Promoted the idea that pollution-free scenic roads offer an opportunity for Scottsdale to differentiate itself from other tourist destinations
Attended numerous meetings with City staff and home builders in an attempt to find solutions to the proliferation of development signs in Scottsdale
Helped develop Scottsdale's Scenic Corridor Guidelines
Participated in the definition of Scottsdale's Character Areas (signs were always discussed)

Studied the City’s current sign ordinance, and ordinances from tourism-sensitive cities that Scottsdale competes with
Gained practical experience in signing practices (legal and illegal) by helping Scottsdale enforce its sign ordinance in north Scottsdale
Invested our own time and energy to draft a text amendment for Scottsdale, which is summarized below.

Summary of Our Proposed Changes to Sign Ordinance

The key points of our proposed text amendment for Scottsdale are:

General

Prohibit all signs not allowed by the ordinance vs. allowing anything not prohibited.

Political Signs

Require permit
Require that a responsible person be identified on signs and permits
Require that the location of all signs be provided to the city for follow up
Do not allow signs on Scenic Corridors
Reduce size from 32 square feet to 9 square feet and height from 10 feet to 4 feet

Large Real estate & development signs

Eliminate all off-site signs. These are really billboards that serve only one industry. No other business in Scottsdale is allowed off-site signs, temporary or permanent.
Reduce the size of onsite signs from 48 square feet to 32 square feet or less
Reduce height of onsite signs from 10 feet to 6 feet or less
Keep of onsite signs out of Right-of-way and out of Scenic Corridors

Onsite directional signs

Reduce size from 48 square feet to 16 square feet or less
Reduce height from 10 feet to 6 feet or less
State that off-site directional and development signs are prohibited (just removing the paragraph could be interpreted as allowing them, especially without the first change listed above
Remove other minor loopholes in the ordinance as identified in thedraft put together by Friends of the Scenic Drive.

Why Proposed Changes are Required

Although changes presented by Jeff Fisher are a step in the right direction, Friends believes they will:

Not have any impact on the off site development signs
May have negative impacts on our election system with regard to the political signs
Fail to eliminate political signs
Highly favor well-funded and/or connected candidates and issues.

In Conclusion

The changes we propose will totally eliminate off site developer signs and minimize the impact of political signs in a fair and equitable manner.

The citizens of this city have constantly complained about both developer signs and political signs. Friends is not alone is this quest. We also see the negative impact that visual pollution has on our tourist industry. If other cities can control their sign pollution, and there are many that do, so can Scottsdale.

Bold steps will not please everyone, but are necessary if Scottsdale is to preserve its heritage and lead the Valley as a desirable place to live and visit.

We look forward to your response.

Board of Directors, Friends of the Scenic Drive