Heights imposes limits on those blinking signs

by Kevin Olsen
staff reporter

Council adopts LED ordinance

A new law in Palos Heights will dim somewhat the bright flashing lights in this little city.

Electronic message signs were back on the docket for the Palos Heights City Council on Tuesday in what appears to be the final time.

The council voted 5-to-2 to approve the ordinance that was drafted last October, with several amendments added to it. Aldermen Dolores Kramarski (3rd Ward) and Jack Clifford (2nd Ward) voted no.

Alderman Mike McGrogan (4th Ward) said the underlying theme of the ordinance is not to have Palos Heights look like Las Vegas. McGrogan chairs the committee. He said the committee looked at more than 30 municipal codes on such signs and took what they believed to be the most pertinent information, and incorporated it into the ordinance.

A moratorium had been placed on such signs before the vote to adopt the ordinance.

The council had voted in October to draft an ordinance on light-emitting diode (LED) signs, but deferred it back to its License, Permits and Franchises Committee before adopting the ordinance. That panel then enlisted help from a resident and input from area business owners before submitting a final draft to the council. The ordinance has since been changed to electronic message center (EMC) signs to incorporate all sign technology that surpasses LED signs.

Sam Van Bruggen, owner of Van Bruggen Signs and president of the Illinois Sign Association, advised the committee on each restriction in the ordinance until it was passed on to the city council.

The ordinance says the EMC display of a sign face cannot exceed 60 percent of the area of the entire sign. Within that 60 percent, up to 25 percent can be used for a simple animation. No streaming video, flashing, strobing or other distractive effect is permitted.

Building Commissioner James Dougherty said all the signs in town comply with those factors, but several need to reprogram their signs to meet illumination requirements. The signs shall not exceed 5,000 NITS during business hours. From dusk to dawn, the signs shall not exceed 1,200 NITS. A NIT is a unit of illumination brightness equal to one candela per share meter measured perpendicular to the rays of the source. The city has a meter to measure NITS on each sign and will provide the results to each business.

Alderman Clifford thought the 1,200 NITS was too high of a maximum. He cited the sign at Southwick Commons, Harlem Avenue and College Drive, that only comes in at 500 NITS and is still clearly visible.

Businesses will have 90 days to comply with the ordinance from the day they receive notification of non-compliance. Existing signs will not be grandfathered in. Most, if not all of the restrictions, can be corrected by changing the programming of the sign, Van Bruggen said.

While a main concern along of the committee is the use of red and amber lights, Van Bruggen said the brightness level is more important than the actual color. The ordinance calls for signs not to resemble or simulate any warning or danger signal, or any official traffic control device, sign, signal or light. The background of the EMC sign must be of less light intensity than the text or graphics. Van Bruggen said a sign can have red lights and not resemble a traffic or warning signal.

“If you dim properly, I think the problem is going to go away,” Van Bruggen said.

McGrogan said on Tuesday that red lights are not allowed on the EMC signs. Clifford said businesses that have red lights could use a color filter on the sign to comply with the ordinance.

Static messages cannot contain motion, flashing, running lights, variation in brightness or animation. The word scrolling was eliminated from the ordinance as some of the EMC signs are too small to support more than one word at a time. Messages must have a dwell time of no less than three seconds and a transition time of no more than one second.

The signs can only display time, temperature, alpha-numeric text, logos, graphics and simple animations. The signs can only advertise the business, products or services available on the premises of which the sign is located. It is also legal for the signs to promote charitable organizations or civic events.

Kramarski said the signs should be used only to promote the business. She voted against the measure because the advertising for charities or civic events remained in the ordinance. She did not think people should be able to use the sign for politics. McGrogan said it could become an issue of freedom of speech to prohibit certain messages from the signs.

The city, if need be, has the right to request emergency information to be displayed upon the signs.

The ordinance only allows EMC signs in commercial and non-commercial business districts. Churches, schools and private residences would not qualify under the ordinance.

This is part of the February 18, 2010 online edition of The Regional.

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