Emergency Sign Moratorium 6-17-14

Brookhaven, GA, June 17 - The City of Brookhaven City Council held a Special Called Meeting Tuesday evening and voted unanimously to enact a resolution approving a temporary emergency moratorium for sign permits, which will end August 12th at 11:59 PM. Mayor Pro-Tem Rebecca Chase-Williams presided over the meeting due to the Mayors absence.

During the June 10th City Council Meeting the Council enacted a moratorium that will expire midnight on June 17. Mayor J Max Davis said that there is some possible confusion over the city’s sign ordinance as it stands now. “There are some issues with some billboard companies possibly trying to take advantage of some things or not, we don’t know. That’s the reason for it [moratorium].”

The City is currently being sued by Tanner Advertising Group, LLC who has filed legal action against the City of Brookhaven for denying its applications to erect several billboards within city limits.

The complaint filed by Tanner in DeKalb Superior Court on June 6th, is based on the argument the city has never properly adopted a zoning map. And, the complaint says, due to the lack of a properly adopted zoning map, Brookhaven’s Zoning Ordinance and Sign Ordinance are invalid and unenforceable and therefore denial of the applications is baseless.

The city says the emergency moratorium will provide the opportunity to audit the current sign ordinance (Chapter 21 in the Brookhaven Code) in conjunction with the audit of the cites zoning map.
"This Council believes that an extension of the moratorium on the acceptance and processing of applications for sign permit approvals and on the issuance of such approvals, will not deny property owners economically viable use of their property or prevent citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights and will afford City officials and this Council the time necessary to put into place reasonable regulations to further the aforesaid purposes," reads the Resolution.