DUANE SHERRILLEditor

It is an all-or-nothing situation when it comes to commercial signs on the right-of-way, as the city will either have to allow all of them or allow none of them.

The decision on the new sign ordinance is likely close at hand as city leaders are expected to get a look at the new proposed rules in their coming meetings.

“A lot of what we have in our ordnance is unnecessary,” said Director of Planning and Development Samuel Luthi as he gave the board of mayor and aldermen a peek at the proposed undated sign ordinance. “When we look at what we can regulate it’s predominantly the location of the signs, the size of the sign and the numbers of signs.”

Luthi noted that the city is not allowed to judge a sign by the content on the sign. “I want to go into our sign ordinance and take out basically everything that has to do with the content of the sign because, and there are several Supreme Court cases to back this up, we are not allowed to regulate. (The law) doesn’t care. A five-foot sign is a five-foot sign.”

Luthi said he will send the new sign ordinance to the planning commission and then their decision will be sent to the city board.

Mayor Lynn Sebourn said the biggest sticking point currently is signs on the right-of-way.

“If we’re going to allow some signs on the right-of-way, we are going to have to allow all of them,” Luthi said. “Because the only difference in a directional real estate signs and my business sign is what’s on the face which we cannot judge or regulate. It’s kind of an open or closed door. If we are going to allow directional signs on city property, then we have to allow anyone’s signs.”

City attorney Brittany Hoskins agreed with Luthi, saying a commercial sign is a commercial sign.

“We can’t say that real estate signs are allowed because that is selecting a specific kind of commercial advertising sign,” she said.

Fellow city attorney Stephen Worsham noted that places like Murfreesboro bar all signs on rights-of-way. He said the city of Tullahoma has the power to ban all signs from the right-of-way. He also said they can regulate and ban inflatable signs.

Alderman Kurt Glick interjected that there is less need for realty and auction directional signs nowadays as people put address of such events in their GPS before going.

There was a short discussion about signs that are posted on utility poles to which Luthi pointed out they are considered snipe signs and are considered illegal.

Luthi redirected the discussion to the general sign ordinance he is putting together, pointing out the board can adjust the present business sign rules as to numbers of signs and size of signs. He also noted that the city aggressively limits billboards under its sign ordinance with billboard only permitted on two streets in Tullahoma, Jackson and Carroll.

“I severely doubt we will ever see any new billboards unless one is retired,” Luthi said.