Hillsboro City Council hears proposed sign code update; new parks committee established

At their regular July meeting, Hillsboro City Council members heard the first reading of a proposed update to the city’s sign ordinances as well as a change to a council committee.

The only legislation introduced that didn’t have its three-reading rule suspended was an ordinance amending section 155 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to signs.

NOTE: To read about the ordinances and resolutions approved Thursday, go to: https://highlandcountypress.com/hillsboro-city-council-oks-next-funding….

Proposed changes to the existing sign code include:

• Adding “signs approved and permitted that have been weathered, damaged or destroyed that are replaced true to their original permitted design;” construction signs six square feet or less; and holiday decorations for religious or national holidays to the list of signs not requiring a sign permit.

• An addition to the sign computations (area, height and setback) section of the code regarding free-standing signs along the roadway.

• An addition to the sign illumination section of the code stating that illuminated signs in the Historic and Business “G” Zoning District “must be rated at a ‘color temperature’ of 3000k or less.”

• Changing the maximum wall sign area from 1.5 square feet two square feet per foot of building frontage; the maximum wall sign area from 1.75 square feet to 2.25 square feet for each foot of building fringe for buildings set back more than 200 feet from any right-of-way; and the maximum wall sign area from two square feet to 2.5 square feet for buildings set back more than 400 feet from any right-of-way.

In addition, the proposed update adds: “For multi-storied properties with multiple tenants, ‘bonus signage’ of 30 square feet is permitted for each eligible frontage. This may be increased by 10 square feet for each additional building floor. The sign must be placed at the height at which the bonus has been granted.’”

• Adding more information on the regulations for projecting signs, including that “projecting signs may be attached to the building wall or canopy and project at an angle of approximately 90
degrees from the building wall and may project at a 45-degree angle from the building wall or canopy for a distance of not more than four feet. In no instance should a projecting sign of either configuration project over another owner’s property or any public or private drive.”

The maximum area per sign face for projecting signs was removed, as the signs are now proposed to be “permitted in addition to the allowable wall signage as regulated” in the Wall Signs section. Projecting signs would also now be permitted to be “internally illuminated,” which was previously prohibited.

• Increasing the maximum wall sign area for wall signs in the historic district from 1.25 square feet to 1.5 square feet for each foot of building frontage.

There was no discussion of the ordinance, including during a public hearing before the meeting, where no citizens weighed in on the possible update.

In committee and administrative reports:

• It was noted that a major update has been made, as the property maintenance and restoration committee has been dissolved.

“We have an effective code enforcement environment and a building department now is in place working well on dealing with many of the things that that committee has dealt with in the past,” council president Tom Eichinger said. “In fact, there's been nothing in that committee for months, maybe a year or more.”

In that committee’s place is a newly implemented parks committee, which will be chaired by council member Don Storer. Its agenda will include plans for a potential new parks department and for possible acquisition of the local pool.

“We have some opportunity to begin to move forward now that we have Crossroads Park coming on, and the Railroad Park has been fixed and going to be built out even more with pickleball, hopefully, and things like that,” Eichinger said. “We're putting into the parks committee two efforts at this point: number one, to work with the administration to establish a parks department and any legislation necessary to create such a department and begin to identify the necessary staffing; and secondly, to work again with the administration to evaluate and possibly take action with regard to the pool that is not owned by the city at this time, but there is a proposal that at some point could bring the pool into the city park system.

“I'm asking Mr. Storer to step up to take on both of those activities, working closely with administration, who by the way, is already working on the 2024 budget and looking to establish the necessary funding there for the beginnings of a park department.”

• Street and safety committee chair Adam Wilkin reported on a June 27 meeting to discuss a proposal to convert Johnson Street into a one-way street. Several members of the community were among those in attendance for the committee meeting, he said.

During the citizens’ comments portion of the May council meeting, Hillsboro resident and former council member Brian Waller presented packets he created for the proposal to convert Johnson Street to a one-way street. Waller said his proposal was prompted by the city’s recent work on curb and gutter improvements on the street. He thanked the city for making those improvements but said that they have also caused some issues, particularly with on-street parking.

According to Wilkin, the street and safety committee voted to move forward with reviewing the proposal with the full council and considering a public hearing.

“There are a couple of reasons this could be a good idea,” Wilkin said. “One-way traffic will allow for on-street parking for the residents and allow for the city to maintain and treat the street easier during the winter months.

“There is a dangerous intersection at the south end of Johnson Street where it connects to state Route 73. A one way heading from south to north, terminating on East Walnut Street, will eliminate this issue, only allowing traffic to pull onto Johnson Street from 73, but not allowing traffic to enter onto 73 from the south end of Johnson Street.”

• Council member Greg Maurer said that the utilities committee has not met but gave a brief update on the city’s electric aggregation proposal.

“The city of Hillsboro’s electric aggregation is fully filed, and now we're in the hands of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio,” Maurer said. “This usually takes 30 days.”

In June, council approved an emergency ordinance approving a plan of operation and governance for the municipal electric aggregation program of the City of Hillsboro. The ordinance was in response to the ballot issue on aggregation approved by voters in the May primary election.

The goal of the program is to allow participants to have lower energy rates. Participation is voluntary. The ordinance allows the city to “administer an opt-out governmental aggregation program that will automatically include all eligible electric accounts and will seek to aggregate the retail electric loads of consumers located in the City’s boundaries to negotiate the best rates for the supply of electric power,” according to the legislation.

• Mayor Justin Harsha gave his report on the 2023 Festival of the Bells, which was held July 6-8 at the city’s Crossroads Park on West Main Street.

“They had [the Highland County Historical Society] Pioneer Day, a car show and three concerts, so I think it was overall a great success,” Harsha said. “We look forward to helping them moving forward.”

Along with the activities at that city park, the mayor thanked council members for supporting revitalization efforts at the Railroad Street Park, which was the site of this year’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament during the festival. Council previously approved legislation to pay for repaving the tennis and basketball courts at the park.

“They had 30 teams and over 100 participants, so it was a great success,” Harsha said.

• City auditor Dawson Barreras said that his monthly reports were not completed yet due to some snags with the new software system.

“With the new software upgrade, all the numbers getting converted from the income tax back to the auditor's office have not been correct,” Barreras said. “The owners of the software are working to get that taken care of. It should be done next week, but not positive.”

Barreras also asked if the city Treasury Investment Board could be placed in committee for review. Under the current city code, the board is supposed to include the mayor, auditor, treasurer and law director.

“It has not been updated since probably the early ’90s,” Barreras said. “We need to need to get that in committee and rewrite the policy and just completely restart it from the ground up.”

Eichinger placed the matter in the finance committee.

• At the start of the meeting, Eichinger thanked president pro tempore Maurer for presiding over the May and June city council meetings.

“I would like to thank Mr. Maurer for sitting in for me for the last two months, which allowed me to be able to attend some important family events,” Eichinger said. “I’m back, so you're off the hook.”

• During citizens’ comments, local resident Patrick Shanahan addressed the debate over the 2023 Hillsboro Pride event that took place at the June city council meeting. He spoke about representatives of a neo-fascist hate group that protested throughout the Pride event, held June 3 at Liberty Park.

Shanahan alleged that the protesters did “nothing but threaten and bully and harass people at our event,” including threatening Shanahan himself.

“We had to pull in police officers from three different departments around the county just to keep an eye on things,” he said. “This is the third year in a row we've had this event. We have never needed that kind of police presence. The only reason we needed that was because of the violent threat posed.

“Knowing all of this, you all need to be thinking about what is the real threat to public safety here.”

During the June council meeting, two residents said that council needed to update the “decency laws” because of the alleged “lewd behavior” occurring in front of children, while representatives of the Hillsboro Pride event said that they had implemented conduct regulations and that inviting the hate group “was the real disgrace.”

On Thursday, Shanahan asked council if “the real threat to public safety that a 12- or 13-year-old kid is coming to our event … seeing a man in drag” or that “violent fascists from out of town … spend five hours trying to threaten and harass people.”

“Which of those things is actually going to put a kid in harm's way?” Shanahan asked. “I understand that this is a conservative community, and that's fine. I don't care. I understand that gay pride and drag shows are not something that everybody's super enthusiastic about, and you don't have to be.

“The one thing you have to do is you have to understand the difference between being a conservative and being a fascist. There is an enormous difference between those two things. Nothing about fascism is tolerable. It has zero redeeming qualities. If you don't understand the difference already, you need to educate yourself. You need to read some history. If you can't be bothered to do the bare minimum effort to understand the dangers of fascism, you need to get off city council.”