Measure seeks to streamline city sign-approval process

Tuesday, July 1, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

A proposed ordinance that would give the city of Las Vegas staff more power to approve signs for smaller projects such as strip malls and small shopping centers was given a thumbs-up Monday by the City Council's recommending committee.

Without comment, the committee of Councilwoman Janet Moncrief and Councilman Lawrence Weekly sent the measure to the full council for another public hearing and a final vote. That could come as early as July 16.

The bill proposes to update sign review procedures, which deal with commercial signs on buildings but does not include billboards or political signage.

The way the ordinance currently is written, nearly every on-premise commercial sign proposal has to come before the City Council for a vote.

Margo Wheeler, deputy director of the city's planning and development department, said those matters can clog an already busy council agenda and, under the current system, developers are forced to face several repetitive hurdles to get their smaller projects approved.

"All rules and regulations regarding signage remain in place," she said. "The intent is to eliminate some multiple layering of the review process. Many developers won't have to go through as many steps."

Wheeler said some of the changes proposed in the bill are:

City Attorney Brad Jerbic, in a memo to the City Council in support of the proposed ordinance, said, "It has been determined that a number of the provisions of the Municipal Code that govern the review and approval of on-premise signs ... are duplicative or obsolete. This bill will update and streamline those provisions."

No one showed up at Monday's afternoon public hearing to either support or protest the bill.