Dupage Policy Journal

At the Dec. 12 meeting of the Village Board of Burr Ridge, the board made changes to the ordinances regarding signs on public properties.

The ordinance would ban signs from being placed on the right of way, however they are still allowed on private property. The village is also not allowed to regulate content of the signs, although it can regulate size and placement of them. The ordinance would apply strictly to public land and the right of ways.

The discussion arose because some felt the language of the sign ordinance is very complicated and difficult to comply with, with specific hours regarding signs on public property as well as rules about written names and contact info and contacting local residents.

“So the short answer is yes, we have a permission to allow signs right now, but staff has never encountered an example of something which was truly compliant to every element of the sign ordinance," said Evan Walter, Village Administrator of Burr Ridge. "And so because of that, you have a de facto ban on signs in the right of way. Now in that if you had a thousand examples in the last five years, not one complied by technical definition. Okay. So it became an issue of staff communicating to persons who sought to seek signs or sought to understand how they could seek to place signs. It became really an educational issue of them not understanding or not being willing or unable to comply with all of our signed regulations. And so we were eventually left with the situation of picking up many, many signs every single year.” 

A resident, Krystle Johnson Downs, came to the meeting to discuss her opinion on the zoning change. She asked that the code not be approved as rewritten without adding a clause that protects the interest of residents and community members. She said some signs have done good for the community. She cited the resurgence of a Little League club and many successful garage sales, neighborhood events, and even house sales credited to these signs.

The village board passed the motion to ban signs on public properties.