Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

PTC OK’s sign moratorium for 45 days

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The recent Georgia Supreme Court decision on a case involving Fayette County’s sign ordinance has spilled over into Peachtree City.

At a special called meeting of the City Council Saturday, council voted unanimously for a 45-day moratorium on accepting and approving new sign permits to allow time for changes to be made to the ordinance so it too won’t face a legal challenge.

“There are some similarities,” Mayor Steve Brown said of the city’s and county’s sign ordinances.

City Attorney Ted Meeker said he had been preparing a slate of changes to update the sign ordinance, but the 45-day moratorium was recommended because he didn’t think he’d have the latest changes done quick enough for the Planning Commission to act on them before they go up for a City Council vote.

Meeker told The Citizen that he began working on changes after several flaws in the ordinance were revealed in the process of working with developers on the Target store that will be built in the Kedron Village shopping center.

The moratorium will not affect sign permits already applied for, officials noted.

“This essentially protects what we have been doing in Peachtree City,” Brown said.

Officials from the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce were notified of the meeting and attended, providing input for council before the unanimous vote.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Fayette Superior Court Paschal English used an incorrect standard to deny a temporary restraining order sought by Fayette resident Curtis “Bubba” Coffey after he was ticketed in July for having two political signs bigger than six square feet in size, the maximum allowed by county ordinance.

Coffey sued the county over the ordinance, joined by Fayette resident Wayne Charles and Tanner Advertising Group LLC, saying the rules which limited him to just one sign did not allow him to support more than one candidate in the election.

Although English correctly determined that the county “has a significant governmental interest in aesthetics and traffic safety,” he failed to take into account other tests such sign ordinances must meet, the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion.

The Supreme Court noted that the Georgia constitution provides broader protection than the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution because the state requires a government to “draw its regulations to suppress no more speech than is necessary to achieve its goals.”

Several other county residents were ultimately cited for having political signs larger than allowed, which caused a stir in State Court, where solicitor Steve Harris, then campaigning for a seat on the Superior Court in Fayette’s judicial circuit, indicated he wouldn’t prosecute the cases because the county’s sign ordinance was unconstitutional.

State Court Judge Fletcher Sams later recused Harris from the sign cases, noting that Harris himself had “erected multiple political signs in and about Fayette County that are arguably in the same state of violation.”

County officials indicated a special prosecutor would be sought to try the sign cases, but court records Tuesday morning indicated that none of those cases have proceeded since Sams’ order in July.

Council also enacted a 45-day moratorium while changes are made to its big-box ordinance. The moratorium forbids the accepting or approval of development plans for all structures more than 32,000 sq. ft. in size on lots zoned for general commercial use.

The moratorium does not apply for industrial structures or any development for a lot zoned limited use commercial, office or residential use, officials said.

Meeker said he was not aware of any pending development applications submitted to the city which would be subject to the moratorium.