By Carolyn Dryer | Peoria Times
It has taken city planning and development staff two years to pare the sign code ordinance from 48 to 22 pages and from 18,138 to 7,593 words. In so doing, council, with its approval of a new sign code amendment March 6, comes into compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires “content neutrality” when enforcing sign codes. That means the message does not matter.
The ruling was handed down June 18, 2015, by the Supreme Court, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing the majority opinion, stressing that if a law is content-based “on its face,” it is to be treated as content-based.
