The City of Naperville is shrinking the size allowed for campaign, religious and other signs on residential property.
The Naperville City Council passed a new sign code capping the size at six square feet. The move comes in response to the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Reed v. Gilbert which ruled the size of temporary signs must be uniform, regardless of content.
Residents in November got the chance to weigh in on maximum sign size for residential and commercial property. A majority of the 692 people who voted wanted to cap the size at four square feet. Current code allows a maximum of eight square feet for temporary signs.
“This is right in the middle, a compromise of the two sizes,” said Amy Emery, city strategic project supervisor.
Council members debated size before settling on the compromise.
“I prefer the smaller signs and I’ve never heard anybody say they like the big signs,” Councilman Kevin Gallaher said. “For years we got along fine with the smaller signs.”
Gallaher and Councilman Paul Hinterlong agreed it was somewhat “self-serving” for politicians to discuss how big the temporary signs can be since they use campaign signs in elections.
“Things would be a little different if we weren’t all politicians,” Hinterlong suggested.
Council members also set a new cap on the size of temporary signs on commercial property at 12 square feet, up from the current maximum of eight square feet.
Enforcement of the new code will begin in May, allowing the bigger campaign signs for the April 4 election.
“Enforcement in May provides time to replace non-conforming signs,” Emery said.
She said the new code is more user-friendly because residents were sometimes confused since previous guidelines were listed under an ordinance named Street Graphics Control., With fewer categories for sign enforcement, the new code also means fewer code variations.
“This will help streamline things,” Emery said.
Naperville does not have a limit on the number of temporary signs allowed on residential property.
