Amity Sign Rewrite Would Cap Yard Signs at Four, 90 Days

Amity Township homeowners could put up no more than four temporary signs at a time, and would have to take each one down after 90 days, under a rewrite of the township's sign rules that the Board of Supervisors has scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m. The township posted the full 16-page text on Oct. 27. It is an unsigned draft, numbered "Ordinance No. 2026-___," and the board can change it before or at the hearing.

The amendment restates most of § 32-927, the sign section of the zoning ordinance, whose current text on eCode360 was last amended in 2016. The Sept. 16 minutes record the reason: township solicitor Brian Boland said "Most of the changes being proposed were a direct result of the Township being challenged about 10 months ago when a resident was notified to remove a sign," and that the changes "would bring the Ordinance into compliance with a Supreme Court case that stated the content of such signs could not be the basis for regulation" (p. 2). The draft's stated purpose is "reasonable content-neutral time, place and manner regulations" (§ 32-927(a)(1)). Content-neutral means the rules depend on a sign's size, height and location, not on what it says. The current section instead regulates temporary signs by category: event signs, real-estate signs, contractor signs, trespassing signs and political signs each have their own rule (current § 32-927(d)(2) through (d)(6)).

Yard signs: four per property, 90 days, then 14 days down

For any temporary sign in any zoning district, "regardless of the message displayed," the draft's § 32-927(d)(2) sets these limits:

• No larger than six square feet, and no taller than four feet ((d)(2)(i) and (ii)).
• "No more than four temporary signs shall be displayed on a single property at any one time," or up to four on each street frontage for a corner lot ((d)(2)(vi)).
• No sign "for a continuous period exceeding 90 days." After 90 days it "shall be removed for a minimum of 14 days before it may be redisplayed" ((d)(2)(vii)).
• The 90-day limit does not apply while "an ongoing condition or circumstance" continues on the property. The draft names two examples: a valid building or zoning permit covering active construction, or a property "actively listed for sale, lease, or rent." The word "including" leaves room for others. Those signs must come down within 14 days after the condition ends ((d)(2)(vii)).
• No sign in the official right-of-way of any street, the strip of land along a road that the public owns, which often includes the grass between the sidewalk and the curb ((d)(2)(viii)). No sign in a clear sight triangle at an intersection or driveway, and none that blocks pedestrians ((d)(2)(iii) and (iv)).
• A sign the township finds out of compliance or hazardous must be fixed or removed within 30 days of written notice; after that the zoning officer "may immediately remove such temporary sign at the sole cost and expense of such owner" ((d)(2)(v)).

The six-square-foot and four-foot limits are not new; the current code applies them to each category. What is new is the count and the clock. The current code sets no overall limit on how many temporary signs a property can display, and it ties removal to events instead of days: political signs come down "upon completion of the election," event signs "immediately upon the completion of the campaign, drive or event," and real-estate signs "immediately upon completion of the transaction" (current (d)(2), (d)(3)(iv), (d)(6)(iii)). The current code also allows only one real-estate sign per street frontage. The draft has no separate political-sign rule and sets no election window; a campaign sign would be one of the four and would run on the same 90-day clock as any other.

The draft also drops the current code's separate categories for farm-product signs and agricultural-association signs in residential districts (current (e)(3) and (e)(4)); under the draft they would fall under the general temporary-sign rules or the one wall sign per dwelling.

Homes, churches, schools and developments

In the residential districts (RC, LDR, MDR, MHP and the Rural Village-Amityville district), the draft's § 32-927(e) allows:

• One wall sign per dwelling or principal building, up to four square feet, "fixed flat against the main wall" ((e)(1)). The current code allows a two-square-foot home-occupation sign instead (current (e)(1)).
• For schools, churches, clubs and municipal uses, one freestanding or wall sign per street frontage, up to 12 square feet ((e)(2)). The size is the same as now.
• One permanent entrance sign per entrance, up to 32 square feet, for developments of 25 or more homes ((e)(3)), also unchanged.
• No illuminated signs or electronic message display signs in a residential district, except on properties with "a lawfully permitted nonresidential use," or for approved commercial uses in the Rural Village district with the supervisors' approval ((e)(4)). The current code lists the exceptions by name (municipal, school, public safety, church) and says an illuminated sign needs a township permit before it goes up; the draft drops that permit sentence (current (e)(6)).

Apartment complexes and planned residential developments keep their own rules in § 32-927(f): one temporary freestanding sign per frontage, up to 32 square feet and 10 feet tall, for up to one year with a township permit ((f)(1)). The current code allows that sign only to advertise sale or rental of the property; the draft allows any temporary freestanding sign.

Route 422 businesses: electronic signs, billboards and brightness

An electronic message display sign, or EMD, is a sign whose words or images "can be electronically or mechanically changed by remote or automatic means" (§ 32-927(b)). Where those signs are allowed does not change. In the HC (Highway Commercial) and SCC (Shopping Center Commercial) districts they are permitted on the business's own lot; in the LI/O (Light Industrial/Office) district they are allowed only on the parts that "immediately adjoin United States Route 422" and within 150 feet of the edge of the pavement. An EMD may be no larger than 50 square feet or 25% of the property's total allowed sign area, whichever is less ((g)(2)(iv)). The same language is in the current code.

What changes is how the screens may behave. The current § 32-927(j)(6) says electronic displays "shall contain static messages only," with no movement, flashing or "varying of light intensity," each message held at least five seconds, and "no scrolling, traveling, frame effects, flashing, fading or dissolving." The current definition section defines seven transition terms (dissolve, fade, frame, frame effect, scroll, transition, travel). The draft deletes those definitions and the static-only rule. The Sept. 16 minutes described the amendment as "removing definitions to permit movement and phasing on electronic signs," as we reported from the Oct. 7 and Sept. 16 minutes.

In their place the draft's (j)(6) sets operating standards: brightness "shall not exceed" 5,000 nits in daylight and 250 nits "between dusk and dawn" ((j)(6)(v)), with automatic brightness control "responsive to ambient light" ((j)(6)(iv)). A nit is a unit of screen brightness. Screens must default to black if they malfunction ((j)(6)(vi)), must be turned off if they show distorted or frozen images ((j)(6)(i) and (ii)), "may not display live events" and, except for billboards, may advertise only the business that holds the sign ((j)(6)(iii)), and may not flash or strobe ((j)(6)(viii)). The township "may require a traffic safety review" for screens near major roads or intersections ((j)(6)(vii)). The general lighting rule drops the current ban on red, green or amber sign lights ((j)(3)).

Billboards, which the ordinance calls off-site advertising signs (§ 32-927(g)(4)) and the draft's new definitions call off-premises signs, stay limited to the HC, SCC and LI/O land along Route 422 within 150 feet of the pavement, at 200 square feet per face, 1,000 feet from any other advertising sign and 20 feet from the roadway ((g)(4)(i), (v), (vi)). That matches the current code. One addition: an electronic billboard must hold each message "for a minimum of five (5) seconds" ((g)(4)(xv)), a rule that now applies to all electronic signs and would apply only to billboards under the draft. The Sept. 16 minutes say the Planning Commission recommended the ordinance "adding a minimum of (5) five second interval between message changes" (p. 2); the posted draft carries that interval only in the billboard section.

Commercial temporary signs also loosen. In HC, SCC and LI/O, the current code allows a large temporary sign only to advertise sale or rental of a property to be built on; the draft allows any temporary freestanding sign, sized by lot: 32 square feet on 10 acres or less, 100 square feet on more than 10 and under 50 acres, 200 square feet on 50 acres or more, up to 40 feet tall ((g)(1)(i) and (ii)). It needs a township permit good for one year, renewable, with a fee "established by resolution of the Board of Supervisors from time to time" ((g)(1)(xii)). Permanent business signs stay at two square feet per lineal foot of building front, up to 160 square feet, with no more than two freestanding signs per lot ((g)(2)(i) and (iii)).

What the draft leaves out

The draft does not state any permit fee; the commercial temporary-sign and billboard fees are left to a later resolution ((g)(1)(xii), (g)(4)(xiv)). Within the sign section it states no fines or penalties for a yard sign that stays up past 90 days; the only enforcement step it describes is the 30-day notice and removal at the owner's cost. It does not say whether signs already up when the ordinance takes effect get any grace period, beyond carrying forward the existing rule that nonconforming signs may stay until removed ((a)(2)). It adds an appeal route: a denied sign permit must be explained in writing, and the applicant may appeal to the Zoning Hearing Board within 30 days ((j)(7)). It also adds a substitution clause letting any allowed sign carry a noncommercial message instead ((j)(8)). The ordinance takes effect "immediately after enactment" (Section 15).

Other hearings coming

Two conditional-use applications were posted the same day. A conditional use is a use the zoning ordinance allows in a district only after the supervisors hold a hearing and find it meets the ordinance's conditions. Mesha Auto LLC of Reading applied Oct. 20 for a "motor vehicle dealership" at 926 Benjamin Franklin Hwy E, Douglassville, a vacant 0.69-acre Highway Commercial lot owned by Dilkhush Properties LLC, under § 32-405(c)(3) (application, pp. 1-2). Barrasso Excavation, Inc. of Birdsboro applied Oct. 14 for "a Light Construction Contractor's Establishment" at 63 E Ben Franklin Hwy, the former Dotterer Auto, also in HC, under § 32-959 (application, pp. 1-2). Each paid a $750 fee. The Oct. 21 agenda listed scheduling both hearings under new business (p. 2), naming the auto-sales applicant as Nisar Popal, who signed the Mesha application (p. 4). The Oct. 21 minutes are not posted, and neither application gives a hearing date; the application form says the township has 60 days from receipt of a completed application to schedule the hearing (p. 4).

How to attend and comment

The Oct. 7 minutes record that the board "agreed to hold the Public Hearing on November 18th at 6:30PM" (p. 4). The Oct. 21 agenda's "Upcoming Meetings" list (p. 3) shows the regular supervisors' meeting that night, Wednesday, Nov. 18, at "7:00PM." The Oct. 7 minutes also record that the amendment went to the Berks County Planning Commission, which "could not review it in time for the October 21st meeting" (p. 4); state law requires the township to send the amendment to the county planning agency at least 30 days before the public hearing (Municipalities Planning Code § 609(e)). As of Oct. 28 the township has not posted a hearing notice or a Nov. 18 agenda on its news or agendas pages; we did not check the legal advertisement in the Reading Eagle or the Berks Law Journal. Meetings are at the township building, 2004 Weavertown Road, Douglassville; 610-689-6000; office hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., per the township website. The office is closed Nov. 3 and Nov. 11, and the Planning Commission meets Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. (agenda, p. 3). The board's other pending zoning work, a 180-day freeze on data centers while it writes rules for them, runs on a separate track.