Ordinance 2013 – July 23, 2013
ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 117 AND ARTICLE 5 SIGN REGULATIONS OF THE
LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE, DEFINING AND REGULATING DIGITAL OUTDOOR
ADVERTISING SIGNS WITHIN THE CITY OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI:
WHEREAS, the City of Oxford’s amended its sign ordinance in 1990 to address outdoor
advertising signs; and
WHEREAS, the City’s sign ordinance is based on eight stated purposes, including the promotion
of esthetics values and the improvement of the safety of the citizens and drivers by restricting the size and
location of certain types of signs or by the elimination of certain types of signs; and
WHEREAS, the City amended its sign ordinance in 2004 and in 2009 to require nonconforming
signs to come into compliance by November 15, 2011; and;
WHEREAS, on January 9 and 10, 2012 Lamar OCL South Corporation filed two lawsuits
challenging the constitutionality of the City sign ordinance and seeking compensation for the removal of
its billboards; and,
WHEREAS, the City Planning Commission and Mayor and Board of Aldermen have considered
all information presented during the course of those lawsuits, including studies and opinions presented by
experts for both parties; and,
WHEREAS, the City’s governing authorities have concluded that the stated purposes of the sign
ordinance are valid and does hereby affirm those purposes; and,
WHEREAS, on April 22, 2013, Lamar made a settlement offer that included the removal of all
eleven then-existing nonconforming billboard structures within the City and dismissal, with prejudice, of
the two lawsuits filed by Lamar; and,
WHEREAS, the City has determined that the stated purposes of the sign ordinance are met by
the settlement offer proposed by Lamar and it is in the best interest of the city to resolve the litigation by
agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND BOARD OF
ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION I. That section 117 Definitions, Land Development Code, of the Code of Ordinances,
Oxford Mississippi, is hereby amended to read as follows:
117
Definitions
156 #4a Digital Billboard: Any billboard which electronically changes the fixed display screen composed
of a series of lights, including light emitting diodes, fiber optics, or other similar technology.
Digital billboards include computer programmable, microprocessor controlled electronic, or
digital displays that display electronic images, graphics, or pictures, with or without textual
information.
156 #7a Foot candle: A unit of illumination on a surface that is everywhere one foot from a uniform point
source of light of one candle and equal to one lumen per square foot.
SECTION II. That Article 5 Section 193 Digital Billboards, Land Development Code, of the Code
of Ordinances, Oxford Mississippi, is hereby amended to read as follows:
193
Digital Billboards
1. Except as specifically provided in this Section, no digital billboards shall be permitted in any
zoning district within the City of Oxford.
2. A total of two back to back digital billboards shall be permitted on HWY 6 West of the
Thacker Road /North Thacker Road intersection in an area zoned general business in accordance
with the regulations included in this Section and upon issuance of a permit by the City. No permit
for a digital sign shall be issued unless the applicant first demonstrates the removal of no less than
four existing non-conforming billboards located within the City of Oxford. A second permit for a
digital billboard shall not be issued unless the applicant has demonstrated the removal of four
additional existing non-conforming billboards located within the City of Oxford. All nonconforming billboards within the City of Oxford shall be removed within a 12 month period from
the adoption of this Section.
3. No digital billboard shall be located be located within linear 1000 feet of another digital
billboard. For the purpose of this subsection, the distance between digital billboards shall be
measured as the distance between the points at which lines drawn perpendicular to the highway
from the location of each billboard intersect with a line along the center of the highway.
4. No digital billboard shall be located within linear 400 feet of a church or single family
residentially zoned property. Measurement shall be from the residential zoning district and/or
church to the outermost portion of the billboard.
5. Maximum height shall be 30 feet.
6. Maximum area shall be 300 square feet.
7. No digital billboard shall be located closer than 50 feet from any street, road or highway
pavement edge or cub line, nor within any public right-of-way.
8. All digital billboards shall be programmable so that there are no effects of movement, blinking,
animation, scrolling, flashing, or similar effects in the individual images.
9. All digital billboards shall be programmed so that the image will change instantaneously as
seen by the human eye, and shall not use blinking, fading, rolling, shading, dissolving, or similar
effects as part of the change.
10. There shall be a minimum of eight (8) seconds between copy changes.
11. All digital billboards shall be equipped with automatic level controls to reduce light levels at
night and under cloudy and other darkened conditions, with accordance with the following:
(a) All such signs shall have installed ambient light monitors, and shall at all times allow
such monitors to automatically adjust the brightness level of the sign based on ambient
light conditions.
(b) The maximum brightness of light emitted from a changeable message sign shall not
exceed 0.3 foot candles over ambient light levels measured at a distance of one hundred
fifty (150’) feet.
(c) Any measurement required shall be taken from a point within the highway–right-ofway at a safe distance from the lane of the main travel way and as close to perpendicular
to the face of the digital billboard as practical. If perpendicular measurement is not
practical, valid measurements may be taken at an angle up to forty-five (45) degrees from
the center point of the sign face.
(d) Written certification from the sign manufacturer must be provided at the time of
application for a building permit certifying that the light intensity of the sign has been
preset not to exceed the illumination levels established by this section, and that the
present intensity level is protected from end user manipulation by password protected
software or other approved method.
(e) The owner of any digital billboard shall demonstrate, at the City’s request and the
satisfaction of the City’s Director of Planning and Development or his designee, that such
digital billboard does not exceed the maximum brightness set forth in this Section.
12. Digital billboards shall be monitored via web camera and remotely frozen in one position or
disabled in the event of a malfunction until said malfunction is repaired.
13. The owner(s) of a digital billboard must reasonably coordinate with relevant public agencies
for and the display of real-time emergency information such as Amber Alerts or natural disaster
directions. Owners shall also reasonably accommodate public agencies for the display of public
service information if space is available.
14. Base of mounting poles shall be covered with a brick veneer with remainder of pole painted a
color complimentary to the brick veneer. Base shall be equal to half of the height of the mounting
pole.
15. The two digital billboards permitted under this Section if erected and designed to operate in
accordance with the regulation included in this Section and after all existing non-conforming
billboards within the City of Oxford have been removed, shall be considered as conforming and
not subject to the amortization clause found in Section 192.12 of the Sign Ordinance.
16. As used in this Section, the phrase “non-conforming billboards” shall mean non-conforming
billboards within the City of oxford on the date of the adoption of this Section.
SECTION III. REPEALING CLAUSE
All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herein shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.
SECTION IV. EFFECTIVE DATE
The Board of Aldermen finds that, because this Ordinance represents an important clarification to the
existing sign ordinance, there exists good cause for this Ordinance to become effective at once.
Therefore, the effective date of this Ordinance shall be immediately from and after its passage by a
unanimous vote of all members of the Board of Aldermen.
The above ordinance having being first reduced to writing and read and considered section by section at a
public meeting or the governing authorities of the City of Oxford Mississippi on motion of Alderman
_____________, seconded by Alderman ____________, and the roll being called, the same by the
following votes:
Alderman Hughes
Alderman Tannehill
Alderman Antonow
Alderman Howell
Alderman Taylor
Alderman Bailey
Alderman Morgan
voted
voted
voted
voted
voted
voted
voted
APPROVED, this the ___________ day of __________, 2013.
_________________________________
GEORGE G. PATTERSON, MAYOR
ATTEST:
_______________________________________
LISA CARWYLE, CITY CLERK