CC 08/26/2024 Minutes (Workshop)

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CASSELBERRY CITY COMMISSION Minutes of August 26, 2024 — Workshop Page 4 of 5 Discussion: Brief discussion ensued after each of the presentation components setting out staff's recommendations, which included: commercial uses vs. residential; feasibility of setbacks or brightness and intensity requirements to protect adjacent residential properties from glare, etc.; multi -family vs. commercial properties for purposes of allowing EMCs; whether an exemption for public purpose would be appropriate if park is located in a residential area; potential negative impacts and implementation of rules that would mitigate any those impacts to surrounding residential areas, how EMCs would be handled when there is a logo; ability to reevaluate if it appears more or less percentage should be allowed; current City sign code; whether double sided display would be counted twice for the allowed square footage requirement; whether or not a sign could be all electronic; definition of footcandles; methodology; illuminance vs. luminance; ambient light; current lighting standards; nits; options for lighting that will adjust to ambient lighting; programmable lighting; manufacturer certifications that they meet the City's code requirements; safety issues and driver distraction; what other jurisdictions are doing; impact of multiple signs at intersections; need to have a safety study in order to change from the sign industry standard of eight seconds to five minutes in message duration; proposing only instant slide changes and no animations, dissolves, transitions; potential driver distraction and safety issues; importance of legibility and contrast; comparisons with what other cities and jurisdictions are doing; need for the City to adhere to all the same standards for EMCs as businesses, with the possibility of exemption or overrides for public purpose or emergency situations; no specific government exemption being proposed; potential for adopting a resolution to address the circumstances under which there would be an exemption or override of the regulations; distance requirement concerns related to potential need for waiver of distance requirements for public purpose distance requirement concerns; and the potential for a need for public messaging about city information other than emergency situations. In response to a question from the Commission, Ms. DeJesus advised that if a business logo contained characters that were not included in the fonts allowed, that language could be included to allow for those types of exceptions. CONSENSUS: The Commission agreed by consensus to direct staff to move forward with further research and preparation of an ordinance for regulation of Electronic Messaging Centers (EMCs) following the recommendations as proposed by staff. Ms. Reischmann advised that staff could do an analysis of properties that may be appropriate for EMCs to determine what could be done to prevent problems for the surrounding residences. She also suggested that if any of the Commissioners see an example of something they think would be helpful, that could be provided to staff in order to try and get those specifics into the Code. She noted that since this is a First Amendment area, backup would be needed for regulation in terms of why the City is choosing to regulate Electronic Messaging Centers in the way it decides upon. She also advised that research would have to be done to find a study that could be used as additional documentation to justify the choice of five minutes for message duration instead of the eight second rule which is used as the standard for the sign industry. 4. CITIZENS' COMMENTS Mayor Henson announced persons that wished to make comment or make inquiry on any matter may request to be recognized during Citizens' Comments. No one came forward.