Background from January 7, 2025 City Council meeting: 
At the January 7, 2025 City Council meeting staff gave a presentation and made a recommendation on Unified Development Code Amendments for Article 11, Section 21.11.6 Prohibited Signs to explicitly state that wind driven signs including feather flags and inflatable / balloon signs are prohibited regardless of size and Section 21.11.17 Temporary Signs to increase the maximum area and maximum height for temporary signage. However, during the discussion, City Council indicated that the proposed amendment language was not desired as written. The explicit prohibition of wind driven signs to include feather flags was not the previous intention. Based on the discussion City Council ultimately tabled the item to the January 21, 2025, City Council meeting in order for staff to provide changes to the proposed UDC amendment language. During the January 7th discussion City Council confirmed the desire to prohibit inflatable / balloon signs but there was a desire to allow feather flags in some capacity. 

City staff has created several different draft UDC Amendments outlined below that will be discussed at the January 21, 2025 meeting in order to have options for City Council to evaluate and modify. From that discussion staff will finalized the UDC Amendment for action. 

Proposed Amendments
Staff is proposing modifications to the following UDC Article 11, Section 21.11.6 Prohibited Signs and UDC Article 11, Section 21.11.17 Temporary Signs
 

Article	UDC Section	Current UDC	Proposed Amendment
11	21.11.6 Prohibited Signs	Currently, the UDC does not directly prohibit inflatable / balloon signs.	Balloon Signs including inflatable signs are prohibits regardless of size.
11	21.11.17.B Maximum Area	Areas with Limited Access:  32 sq.ft. per face or ten percent (10%) of the building facade, whichever is less  Areas with Unlimited Access:  24 sq.ft. per face or seven percent (7%) of the building facade, whichever is less  All Other Streets:  16 sq.ft. per face or five percent (5%) of the building facade, whichever is less	Thirty Six Square Feet (36 sq.ft.)
11	21.11.17.C Maximum Height	Areas with Limited Access: 6 feet Areas with Unlimited Access: 4 feet  All Other Streets: 3 feet	Six Feet (6ft.)

Proposed Amendment Language Options for 

Previous Background from the January 7, 2025 City Council meeting: 
As per Unified Development Code Section 21.4.7, City Council from time to time, or on its own motion, or at the recommendation of City Staff can recommend amendments, change or modify any portion of the UDC to establish and maintain sound and stable development.

At the November 12, 2024, City Council Workshop Meeting, the Planning Division gave a presentation / workshop regarding updating the Ordinance for blowup signs and flags for advertising. As a follow-up, the Planning Division gave an additional workshop / presentation at the November 19, 2024, City Council meeting to discuss proposed amendments to UDC Article 11, Section 21.11.17 Temporary Signs. Both of these workshops / discussions can be reviewed via YouTube. Based on these two workshops, it was discussed that the current regulations for temporary signs should be modified to increase the maximum height and maximum area in order to allow greater flexibility (larger signage regardless of the property location and adjacent roadway classification) for businesses / customers to utilize temporary signs. In addition, the Unified Development Code should explicitly prohibit wind driven signs such as feather flag signs and inflatable signs. 

The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing and made a recommendation of approval at the December 4, 2024, Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. A Public Hearing notice was published in the San Antonio Express on December 18th for the Public Hearing at the January 7, 2025, City Council meeting. 
 

To amend the Unified Development Code Article 11, Section 21.11.6 Prohibited Signs to explicitly state that  inflatable / balloon signs are prohibited regardless of size and Section 21.11.17 Temporary Signs to increase the maximum area and maximum height for temporary signage and to modify the requirements for feather flags. 

It is the City’s desire to promote safe, orderly, efficient development and ensure compliance with the City’s vision of future growth.

When staff evaluates Unified Development Code Amendments, they use section 21.4.7.D Criteria for approval. The criteria are listed below.

1. The proposed amendment promotes the health, safety, and general welfare of the City; 
The City Council requests and staff proposes UDC amendments from time to time to proactively better the Unified Development Code that governs development within the City of Schertz. The proposed amendments allow greater flexibility / larger temporary signs regardless of where the business location is and the associated roadway classification. By increasing the maximum height and maximum area for temporary signage it promotes orderly and efficient development. With the proposed amendments, businesses will still be required to obtain a temporary sign permit which also ensures orderly development of the City. Additionally, by providing clarity on prohibited signs it will ensure consistency and efficiency with the sign permitting process throughout the City.

2. The proposed amendment is consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the UDC and the City; 
The proposed amendments are consistent with the goals and desires of the City Council as discussed at the November 19, 2024 City Council workshop. Additionally, increasing the maximum height and maximum area allows greater flexibility, which is consistent with other UDC Amendments that have been approved. Recent UDC amendments have been made to add clarity on requirements and desires of the City Council. By creating a UDC amendment that clearly prohibits feather flags and inflatable signage, it is more clear for business owners and applicants on what is allowed as a temporary sign in the City of Schertz. 

3. The proposed amendment corrects an error, meets the challenge of changing conditions, or is in response to changes in state law; and 
The proposed amendments will meet the changing conditions / desires of the City Council in relation to allowing larger temporary signs. Additionally, the amendment adds clarity on temporary signs that are not desired and more clearly prohibits the use of feather flags and inflatable signs. The Operational Values of the City include being proactive and service-oriented. By implementing the proposed UDC amendment, it will proactively allow businesses to have larger temporary signs and to have consistent height and area maximums for all businesses regardless of the property location. 

4.  Other factors which are deemed relevant and important in the consideration of the amendment.
Staff has ensured all UDC requirements have been met for the proposed Unified Development Code Amendments. The City Council Workshops at the November 12th and November 19th City Council meetings should be reviewed as it provides additional information as to the insight of why these UDC Amendments have been requested and proposed. 

Staff Recommendation
Based on the City Council Workshops that took place on November 12th and November 19th, there is the desire to modify the Temporary Sign maximum height and maximum area to allow for increased sign size for Temporary Signs. The proposed UDC amendment will allow greater flexibility for businesses that would like to utilize temporary signs.

Staff recommends approval of Ordinance 25-S-004, amendment to Part III of the Schertz Code of Ordinances, Unified Development Code (UDC), Article 11, Section 21.11.6 Prohibited Signs and Section 21.11.17 Temporary Signs based on directive from City Council at the November 19th City Council Workshop. 

Planning and Zoning Commission Recommendation 
The Planning and Zoning Commission met on December 4, 2024, held a public hearing, and made a recommendation of approval to City Council with a 6-0 vote.