By Nancy Huddleston, Editor

The lights might be brighter in the Petula Clark song, “Downtown,” but that was before LED signs that use animation, changing images and words.

Now the Savage City Council wants to make sure those lights on signs don’t get too bright and voted last month to update the city ordinance to regulate the new technology. But doing so took a year, as the city imposed a moratorium on signs that display animation or electronically changing images and messages in April of last year.

The reason it took so long is that other metropolitan area cities have been struggling with the same concern. And Clear Channel Communications sued the city of Minnetonka to install LED signs there. The courts decided to allow limited use of LED billboards and Minnetonka worked with the League of Minnesota Cities to commission a study on the impact of the new signs on traffic safety.

Instead of duplicating Minnetonka’s efforts, City Attorney Ric Rosow advised the City Council to impose the moratorium to give city staff time to review the study and look at what other cities have done.

The result is an ordinance change that restricts signs in the following manner:

+ The definition for dynamic displays allows for future advances in technology by avoiding descriptions that identify the type of sign. Changeable copy was redefined to continue allowing reader-board signs.

+ Brightness of dynamic displays will be required to have the same appearance as regular signs, both during the day and night and must be no brighter than is necessary for clear and adequate visibility, cannot be of such intensity of brilliance as to impair the vision of drivers or otherwise interfere with the driver’s operation of a motor vehicle and the intensity cannot interfere with the effectiveness of an official traffic sign, device or signal.

+ The operating mode of signs is being regulated to minimize distractions; therefore only static displays will be permitted. Distracting images such as animation, video, flashing or scrolling text is prohibited. Changes are limited to the instant replacement of an image with no dissolves, spinning or fading. Messages can only change every 20 minutes. Font sizes will also be regulated based on the speed limit. Minimum font size is 7 inches when the speed limit is 24-34 mph and the maximum font size is 15 inches for a speed limit of 55 mph or higher.

+ No more than 35 percent of the sign’s message can be dynamic. The purpose of this restriction is dual-purpose – to allow people to find the business, but to also discourage the “proliferation of multiple changing signs.”

In reviewing the sign ordinance changes, the Savage Planning Commission and City Council expressed concern with how to regulate brightness.

The staff report detailed that there is no good method to measure the brightness of LED signs since they are measured by the “nit” level. Nits are measured by display intensity and brightness levels and how they are absorbed by the human eye at different wavelengths.

Rosow advised the City Council that enforcement is based on failure to meet the criteria set forth in the ordinance.

“Is there a right or wrong way to go about this?” he asked, “I do not have an answer because there is very little experience across the country enforcing this.”

He noted that sign companies in the metro area seem to be in agreement with the brightness criteria outlined in Minnetonka’s ordinance, and Savage’s ordinance will follow those same guidelines.

Councilwoman Jane Victorey inquired if the city has any recourse if a LED sign is installed on Highway 13 and it can be proven that the accident rate has gone up because of it. “Can we take it down?” she asked.

“Likely no,” answered Rosow. “The court decision did not prevail on strict prohibition of the sign. We cannot deny the right to use that kind of sign.”

 Nancy Huddleston can be reached at editor@savagepacer.com.