A Supreme Court decision on free speech has led to changes in Marshall County’s sign ordinance.
Marshall County Plan Director Ralph Booker told the county commissioners Tuesday the court decision stemmed from a sign dispute in Texas. “Basically, it says you cannot enforce signs on their content because of the First Amendment on free speech,” he explained. “And in that particular case, the Supreme Court decided that they were basing it on content on these particular signs of a church that did not have a permanent location and they put new signs up each week to where they were going to meet, and the city decided that that wasn’t appropriate, so they started pulling their signs.”
He adds that has left local governments scrambling to try to bring their ordinances into compliance. “We really did this, mainly, under guidance of the American Planning Association,” he said. “This Supreme Court case has thrown all planning jurisdictions for a loop on their sign ordinances, and there’s been lots of different documents and everything, lots of hours written on how to get your sign ordinance to be acceptable to that decision. I don’t think the Supreme Court especially did it to do it that way, just they had to vote on that particular issue, and that’s just what has resulted from it.”
Booker said the updated ordinance no longer restricts flags, signs of expression, real estate, and works of art. While signs may no longer be restricted on content, Booker said it appears the county still has some power to restrict them based on Indiana obscenity laws.
The Marshall County Commissioners approved the updated sign ordinance unanimously, along with a few other zoning ordinance changes. Those will expand Booker’s authority to issue permits for roofing and interior renovation work, without having to go before the technical advisory committee. “Why are we spending people’s time – I do have two volunteer members, two members of the plan commission, that one travels from Bourbon and one is traveling from North Township – to come in for these meetings and the only thing we’re approving is that this guy or gal could put a roof on their house?” Booker asked.
The commissioners also voted to update the list of improvements requiring permits to reflect the change.
