§ 4-112. Definitions.

Banner means any sign made of cloth, canvas, plastic sheeting or any other flexible material, which is not rigidly and permanently attached to a building or the ground through a permanent support structure.

Building frontage. See front or main facade definition.

Building sign means a sign displayed upon or attached to any part of the exterior of a building, including walls, doors, parapets, and marquees. Canopy signs, awning signs, projecting signs, and signs suspended from buildings are considered types of building signs.

Commercial message means any sign wording, logo, or other representation that, directly or indirectly, names, advertises, or calls attention to a business, product, service, or other commercial activity.

Commercial sign means when describing the content of a sign, a sign advertising, identifying, directing attention to, or otherwise relating to commerce and to property, goods or services for sale, lease, exchange or any other transaction where value is given or received by any party to the transaction.

Commission means the City of Tuscumbia Planning Commission.

Development sign means a temporary sign used at the entrance to a subdivision, office park, or similar development that identifies a development project in which lots, sites or spaces are available.

Director means the chairperson of the City of Tuscumbia Planning Commission or his/her designee.

Display area means the area of a sign or advertising device that can be enclosed or measured by the smallest square, rectangle, triangle, circle or combination thereof, which will encompass the entire sign or advertising device; excluding trim, frame, apron, posts, uprights, braces or other structural members which support it, (See subsection 4-116(d)—Calculation of display area).

Electronic message board. See reader board.

Entry facade. See main or entry facade definition.

Erect means to construct, reconstruct, build, relocate, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish a sign. It shall not include any of the foregoing activities when performed as an incident to change a message on a reader board, or maintain the sign.

Freestanding sign means any sign supported by structures or supports that are placed on, or anchored in the ground and that are independent from any building or other structure. The posts or other supporting structures shall be considered as part of the sign, except that they shall not be included in computing the sign display area.

Grade level means the finished elevation of the lot or development site upon which the sign is located.

Gross leasable area means the area of a building that is assigned or assignable to specific building occupants. In a single-occupant building, the gross leasable area is the same as the floor area of the building. In a multi-occupant building, the gross leasable area excludes common hallways, elevators, stairs, common restrooms and other shared facilities.

Legible means that a sign or message can be comprehended by a person with eyesight adequate to obtain a current Alabama driver's license standing in the public way or other location from which legibility is to be determined. Where such facts are material, it shall be presumed that the observation takes place in daylight hours, and that the person making the observation is standing and is between five (5) feet two (2) inches and six (6) feet tall.

Main or entry facade means generally the facade or side of the building that faces the public street, road or highway. In cases where the building is oriented in a manner not parallel to the street, the primary entrance facade is used as the main facade.

Noncommercial sign means a sign which contains no commercial message. Noncommercial signs include but are not limited to: signs expressing political views, religious views or signs of non-profit organizations related to their tax-exempt purposes.

Occupied [building] means a building that conforms with applicable building codes for human occupancy and that is regularly used for activities involving human occupancy. Long-term storage in a building designed for purposes other than warehousing shall not constitute occupancy of the building for purposes of this article. In a multi-occupancy building (such as an office building or shopping center), the entire building shall be considered "occupied" as long as at least fifty (50) per cent of the gross leasable area space is so occupied.

Off-premises sign means a sign that includes a commercial message related to a product or service that is not offered on the premises where the sign is located.

Open letter sign means a sign consisting of a logo or symbol, individual letters or connected lettering mounted on a building in a raceway or similar mounting or on the surface of an integral architectural element, which is a part of the building. Individual letters may be illuminated. The display area of an open letter sign shall not exceed the maximum permitted area for building signs on the property, (See subsection 4-116(c)).

Parapet means a low wall or railing to protect the edge of a platform, roof, or bridge.

Portable sign means any sign not permanently attached to the ground or other permanent structure, or a sign designed to be transported. Portable signs include, but are not limited to, signs on wheels, A-frame or T-frame signs, signs attached to vehicles that are not part of the normal day-to-day operation of a business, and temporary metal/cardboard/plastic/wood signs inserted in the ground containing a commercial message other than real estate signs those specifically exempt as listed in section 4-113.

Reader board means a permanent sign or section of a permanent sign that is designed to allow the changing of messages without repainting the sign, replacing the sign face or covering the sign.

Reader board, automatic, means a reader board on which the messages can be changed through electronic or electro-mechanical means.

Residential district means a zoning district for which any combination of the district denomination and purpose statement indicate that the primary character of such district is intended to be residential. On the date of adoption of this article, such districts specifically include the following: R-1 (Single Family), R-2 (Single Family), R-3 (Two-, Three- and Four-family), R-4 (Multi-family), RMF-1 (Multi-family), and P.R.D. (Planned Residential). The R-B (Residential-Business) district is a mixed-use district that is expressly excluded from this definition.

Single user sign means freestanding sign on any individual development site.

Vehicle sign means any sign affixed to a vehicle and/or trailer.

Wall sign means a sign attached to or erected against the wall of a building with the face parallel to the plane of the building wall or attached to the structure as approved by the planning commission.

Wind sign means any signs, pennants, ribbons, spinners, streamers or captive balloons, or other objects or materials fastened in such a manner as to move upon being subjected to pressure by wind (natural or otherwise) and drawing attention to a business, product, service or activity whether it contains a message or not.

Window sign means any sign, picture, symbol, or combination thereof designed to communicate information about a business, commodity, event, sale, or service for the business on which it is located. A window sign shall be mounted on either the inside or outside of the window. Such signs shall be visible from the exterior of the window. Internal signs suspended in such manner as to be visible through a window shall not be considered window signs.

(Ord. No. 09-1123, 11-23-2009)