A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has prompted Golden’s city council to pursue removing its exceptions for unlimited political yard signs during election season.
The city council tabled a motion to change its ordinance in order to comply with the ruling .
The ordinance allows residents to place an unlimited number of political signs in yards in the 60 days leading up to and five days after an election, an exception made to the year-round limit of two signs per yard.
That exception goes against , which sided with a church pastor, saying a city cannot regulate signs based on their content.
City council tabled the motion in order to allow its planning commission time to review its sign ordinance, host a public hearing and make a recommendation to city council by Dec. 10.
“I prefer the option of tabling because it highlights that council recognizes the role of planning commission of looking more deeply into this issue and giving it more thoughtful consideration, and I think that has real value,” said Councilor Saoirse Charis-Graves.
The council voted to table the motion 5-1, with , which would strike references to political signs from the ordinance and allow an unlimited number of yard signs of any kind.
“I would be fine with tabling it if we didn’t have this Supreme Court decision looming here telling us we should make a change right now,” Gould said.
Golden is one of many municipalities that make exceptions in their sign ordinances for political signs, especially during election campaign season.
A memo to the council from Golden’s city attorney’s office said that other municipalities in the area, including Jefferson County, Arvada, Littleton and Westminster, also are looking at amendments to their ordinances to comply with the ruling.
Josie Klemaier: 303-954-2465, jklemaier@denverpost.com or @JosieKlemaier
