Planning staff recommends the City of Billings City Council conduct a public hearing and receive public comment on the Rose Park School project to install an electronic message display wall sign, contrary to the local zoning regulations. The City Council may also provide comment and suggestions to the applicant.

State law governing the application of local zoning regulations to public agencies, local or state, have been on the books since 1981. The purpose of this code section - MCA 76-2-401 and 402 - was to ensure the ability of public agencies to accomplish the mission and purpose of their agency while giving local communities the opportunity to comment when those projects were contrary to locally adopted zoning. Public agency is defined in the law as "a board, bureau, commission, department, an authority, or other entity of state or local government." The term captures many local or state entities from the Department of Natural Resources Conservation (DNRC) to local school districts or even city departments. The law does not apply to federal agencies or departments. The law excludes public projects on land that is privately owned. For example, if the DNRC has partnered with a landowner to complete a project on private property, it is not exempt from local zoning and is not covered by MCA 76-2-402.

In 2021, Senator Bill Mercer introduced and passed a bill that amended this section of state law. The previous convening body for Land Uses Contrary to Zoning was the appointed Board of Adjustment. In addition, the law had language that implied the Board of Adjustment could not provide its own advice, opinion, or summarize the public comments for the applicant's consideration. The changes adopted in 2021 place these types of projects in front of the local governing body (city or county) for public hearing and allows the governing body to provide input, opinion and advice to the project sponsors. The change in law however, does not give the City Council the ability to impose conditions of approval or deny the proposed project.

Rose Park School currently has a manually operated reader board wall sign on the front of the school. The letters and method of changing the sign are out-of-date. The school intends to replace the existing manually operated reader board with a wall sign that would total 10' 6" wide by 3' 5" tall of which 4' 3" of the width will be an EMD sign, as shown in the attachment. In 2021, the City of Billings (City) adopted a new zoning code that included updates to the sign code. In the previous sign code, Electronic Message Display (EMD) signs were allowed for certain "uses" and not associated with a zoning district. This included a special section just for schools, churches, and other institutional uses. The previous sign code allowed EMD signs for all schools, regardless of location. The previous code did have a limitation on the size of a wall sign for an EMD of 10 square feet or for a freestanding EMD sign of 50% of the total sign area; and EMD signs were not allowed to be used without a permanent graphic sign incorporated into the sign.

The 2021 adopted sign code amendments exclude EMD signs from certain zone districts that are generally within or in proximity to residential neighborhoods. This includes Neighborhood Office (NO), Neighborhood Mixed Use (NMU), Public 1 - Parks and Open Space, and Public 2 - Public, Civic and Institutions. Schools, churches, and small public property developments outside of downtown were placed in the Public 2 (P2) zone district. Schools and churches may have EMD signs that were permitted prior to the code change and these would be considered legal nonconforming signs.

The Planning staff has not received any public comment as of the date of this report. 

City Council may:

• Open the public hearing and take public comment and provide input and suggestions to the project sponsor, Rose Park School.

The Council does not have the ability to approve or deny the land use contrary to zoning, but may provide feedback and concerns to the project sponsor.

Holding the public hearing and the land use contrary to zoning will have no impact on the Planning Division budget.