City eyes restrictions on 'freedom of speech signs'

Philip Risner doesn’t think he should have to take the signs down from his two Port Huron properties.

One is a boarded-up house in the 700 block of 11th Street. Another is in the 300 block of 17th Street, where a fenced-in lot surrounds a small shed-like structure.

Both sites display a variety of enlarged documents, letters, and apparent court transcripts detailing a conflict between Risner, the city and city officials.

Those signs may have to come down under proposed city ordinance changes setting rules for “freedom of speech signs.”

“We would have (property owners) in a neighborhood that would basically start using the front yard as their venue to vent, and venting is understandable,” said Port Huron Planning Director David Haynes. “But where it’s to a point where it’s now impacting a neighborhood, especially those within close proximity of the property, at that point, we decided we needed to put some language in place.”

There is no current definition of freedom of speech signs. Officials have proposed an ordinance that sets size limits for total yard signage and how long they may be displayed. It also redefines political signs and decreases the size allowed for special-event signs.

City Council members got a first reading of the ordinance Dec. 11.

City attorney Todd Shoudy told council he drafted the ordinance because there weren’t rules that addressed speech outside of political signs in the city.

However, accepting the draft was not without questions.

Councilman Scott Worden said he thought the ordinance “had a lot of flaws” and questioned if residents who supported local sports teams — putting up a “Go Big Reds” sign or another supporting Detroit teams — would be affected.

Councilwoman Sherry Archibald said she didn’t think the intent was to regulate people from supporting schools or teams. Still, she was also one of several to note the need to differentiate banners from the billboards the ordinance would address.

Under the proposed changes, election and special event signs are allowed in all zoning districts  — at sizes of 16 and 12 square feet in any residential area, respectively, or 32 and 24 square feet in nearly every other type of zone that isn’t public property.

Freedom of speech signs would also be permitted in all zoning districts but could not exceed 12 square feet in residential areas or 24 square feet in other business or commercial areas. It also limits the time they can be erected to 30 days, and once down, that property must be free of signs for two months.

This week, City Manager James Freed reiterated that they’re aiming to regulate based on size because they can’t regulate on content.

He said in working with neighborhood associations, concerns over signs like Risner’s have “been brought up on numerous occasions.”

“People are all about freedom of speech, but when you live in a residential neighborhood, billboards are not acceptable,” Freed said.

But Haynes said they are now revisiting some details, including duration and dimensions, before it comes back to council for another reading in January. The next meeting is Jan. 8.

“There is a description of a flag. Is that considered a type of message?” he said. “Obviously, you can have all kinds of things on a flag. When is (it) a flag and when (it) is a vehicle for communicating a message?”

Whether yard signs bother neighbors varies in Port Huron. Most on Thursday said they’re not particularly irked by them, though they admitted they can be unsightly.

Diane Evans lives across the street from a home in the 1200 block of Union Street with a dozen smaller signs with a variety of messages in its front.

“They’ve been there for an awful long time. I’m not sure if he’s home most of the time,” she said. “I’ve gotten used to it. (But) they don’t help the look of the neighborhood.”

Resident Adam Stein spends a lot of time at his girlfriend’s house on 11th Street — she wasn’t home Thursday night — and said it doesn’t particularly bother them, either.

“We get a lot of traffic that stops by and gets out to see what it says,” he said.

One resident who lives across from Risner’s 17th Street property, however, has taken issue with the signs. When asked about it, she said, “They’ve been round and round for more (than) a year. James Freed knows all about it,” before declining to talk further.

At the last council meeting, Shoudy said it was a neighbor’s complaint that in part prompted the ordinance.

Risner's signs began with a dispute over building code and blight violations on his property.

Dates of letters and documents posted on his properties show interactions in 2015 and 2016. There are details of an alleged altercation and a discrepancy in fines Risner thought he owed, although other city documents state he sent in money he didn’t owe and that officials tried to send it back.

The issue has been ongoing for three years, and Risner said he’d take down signs “as long as it doesn’t violate my rights.” But he believes they’re targeting him for the signs’ content.

“They think they’re going to be able to steamroll me and take down a sign …” he said. “I don’t want to create a lot of problems for the city, I really don’t. (But) I want to come to some sort of amiable solution.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.