Kosciusko County is revising its sign ordinance in part to adhere to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling stems from a case in Gilbert, Ariz., involving the use of temporary signs by a church that posted the same sign every week promoting their services.
While the details of last year’s ruling aren’t of great significance, the bottom line is that the high court determined that zoning policies should not differentiate between types of temporary signs.
Locally, real estate signs make up a large amount of temporary signs compared to ones promoting garage sales, fish fries, candidates and others touting residents’ work such as plumbing and heating.
Kosciusko County’s sign ordinance currently has two classifications of temporary signs – real estate and all others – and is on the verge of simplifying and amending its policies, said Matt Sandy, who presented the ordinance to the county commissioners on Tuesday.
Kosciusko’s current ordinance has more than a page of details on how real estate signs should be treated.
In addition to simplifying the scope of temporary signs, one of the major changes in the new ordinance is how far back from roads the temporary signs need to be.
The proposed ordinance would no longer use road rights of way to determine the location of where signs can be posted. Instead, except for state roads, signs will need to be 10 feet from the edge of the “driving surface.”
Another change involves what is done with signs found in violation.
In the past, temporary signs that were in violation would be pulled and owners of the signs would be notified.
Under the new plan, signs posted too close to the road will be removed and discarded.
“Signs are expensive, so careful where you put them,” Commissioner Ron Truex warned.
An existing policy was drafted more than a dozen years ago with the help of local realtors. They also had input on the proposed changes.
Numerous real estate representatives attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Bruce Woodward, a longtime local realtor, pointed out that the proposed ordinance lacks specificity on the size of signs for different zoning areas.
Kim Clark, another real estate agent, applauded the proposed overall changes, but also expressed concern about the lack of details involving size of signs.
The new ordinance would allow up to a 32-square-foot temporary sign in any zoning district.
The Kosciusko Board of Realtors were requesting that size be limited in residential zoned districts to 6 square feet, however that was not one of the requested changes by the Commissioners.
The proposed ordinance also does not  include how quickly the signs need to be removed, in part because the county doesn’t track the placement of signs and would have trouble documenting when the signs were posted and when they no longer are needed.
Truex acknowledged those concerns.
“This is what we hope to be a good step forward, and if we find flaws we will address them,” Truex said.
The commissioners could have approved the plan Tuesday or sent it back to the area plan commission to approve changes, but instead, opted to have a few minor changes added by area plan commission staff. The commissioners will then reconsider the new plan next month.
Among the revisions suggested by the commissioners is that temporary signs need consent from the property owner.
“You’d think that’s common sense, but it’s amazing,” Sandy said.
He said the county had been looking at revising the sign policy before the court ruling was issued, Sandy said.