Article I — PURPOSE AND SCOPE

This chapter is prepared pursuant to the TRPA Code of Ordinances, Section 38.2.3(A), which permits local jurisdictions to prepare equal or superior sign standards to the TRPA Sign Ordinance, contained in TRPA Chapter 38.

(Ord. 1145 § 1)

The purpose of this chapter shall be to establish regulations on the display, erection, use, and maintenance of signs in South Lake Tahoe. These regulations coordinate the type, placement, and scale of signs within the different land use categories in order to:

• A. Promote public health and safety;

• B. Minimize aesthetic impacts on the community and prevent visual clutter caused by excessive and obtrusive signs;

• C. Reduce distractions, obstructions, or hazards to pedestrians and automobile traffic caused by an excessive number of signs, excessive size or height, inappropriate means of illumination, movements, indiscriminate placement, overconcentration, or unsafe construction;

• D. Improve the visual quality of South Lake Tahoe;

• E. Encourage the innovative use of design;

• F. Promote both renovation and proper maintenance of signs;

• G. Recognize that commercial and residential areas within South Lake Tahoe have different regulatory needs due to their inherent characteristics and may require different sign regulations based on the respective land uses, and that aesthetic impacts based on sign size, illumination, and placement may create a greater public nuisance in residential neighborhood areas than in commercial areas.

• (Ord. 1145 § 1)

This chapter shall not relate to building design. Nor shall the chapter regulate official traffic or government signs; the copy and message of signs; signs not intended to be viewed from a public right-of-way; interior window displays; scoreboards on athletic fields; flags of any nation or government; gravestones; religious symbols; memorial signs; the residential display of street numbers; or any display or construction not defined herein as a sign.

The primary intent of this chapter shall be to regulate signs intended to be readable from any public street, recreation area, bike trail or from Lake Tahoe. (Ord. 1145 § 1)