New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Appendices › Appendix Q-3

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
STANDARDS FOR SIGNS ASSOCIATED WITH PROJECTS
1. The purpose of these standards. The
			 purpose of these standards is to provide a coordinated, uniform and consistent
			 approach for the review by the agency of signs proposed to be erected or
			 maintained onsite in association with projects subject to agency jurisdiction,
			 taking into consideration the natural, scenic, aesthetic and open space
			 resources sought to be protected by the statutes the agency
			 administers.
2. Application of
			 these standards. These standards shall govern the agency in its review of all
			 private signs associated with projects subject to agency jurisdiction which are
			 proposed to be erected or maintained onsite in association with such activities
			 as business, commercial, industrial and tourist, including but not limited to
			 automobile service stations, junkyards, mineral extraction uses and structures,
			 public and private sand and gravel pits, tourist accommodations, tourist
			 attractions, residential subdivisions, campgrounds, trailer parks and mobile
			 home courts.
Off-premises signs are regulated by the Adirondack Park sign
				law, administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation pursuant to
				ECL 9-0305 and 6 NYCRR Part 195. If an off-premises sign is also subject to
				agency jurisdiction, the agency shall apply the standards of this appendix as
				well as those applicable under 6 NYCRR Part 195.
3. Definitions.
(a) Sign means any sign, billboard,
			 advertising structure or inscribed surface, pattern of artificial lighting,
			 pictorial or symbolic ornament, emblematic structure, banner, fluttering
			 apparatus, statue, model, ornamental figure or other visually communicative or
			 expressive device that is visible from an out-of-doors position and is used to
			 advertise or call the public's attention to any business, commercial,
			 industrial, tourist or any other activity, object for sale or lease, person or
			 place, or to bear any kind of message. It includes any surface on which a name,
			 text, device, signal, ornament, logotype or advertising matter is made visible.
			 The meaning of sign shall also include any sign currently in disuse but still
			 visible from an out-of-doors position, and any frame or support structure
			 erected specifically to bear or uphold a sign. The meaning of sign shall not
			 include any sign erected by the Federal, State, county or local government or
			 any department or agency thereof, any poster placed temporarily to advertise a
			 civic event or an event sponsored by a house of worship, school, library,
			 museum, social club or society, or any patriotic flag or banner not used for
			 commercial advertising purposes. The meaning of sign shall also not include any
			 sign having a sign area no greater than three square feet that is used simply
			 to mark property boundaries, give directions regarding roads or trails, exclude
			 hunting, fishing, or other activities, warn of any hazard or condition; if for
			 a residence, denote the name and address of the occupants of the premises on
			 which the sign is located, or advertise the availability of the premises or
			 some portion thereof for sale or lease.
(b) Sign area means the total area of all
			 faces or surfaces of a sign anywhere upon which writing or any illustrative,
			 emblematic or other artistic or expressive matter appears; or, in cases where
			 writing or illustrative, emblematic, or other artistic or expressive matter is
			 not set against any face or surface, the total area within a single continuous
			 rectangular perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of such writing or
			 illustrative, emblematic or other artistic or expressive matter. The sign area
			 of a sign having more than one face or surface on which writing or
			 illustrative, emblematic or other artistic or expressive matter appears shall
			 be the total area of all such faces or surfaces; but if a sign consists of two
			 such faces or surfaces placed back to back, the sign area of the side having
			 the greater sign area shall constitute the total sign area. The sign area of a
			 group of connected or related signs shall be the sum of the sign areas of the
			 signs belonging to it.
(c) Erect
			 means to build, construct, alter, enlarge, relocate, attach, hang, place, affix
			 or maintain any sign, and includes the painting of wall signs.
(d) Luminous sign means an incandescent or
			 other sign which gives forth its own light, or any transparent or translucent
			 sign through which artificial light is emitted, including, without limitation,
			 any neon sign, fluorescent sign or advertising light display.
(e) Level of natural ground means the level
			 of ground prior to any grading or fill done primarily for the purpose of
			 erecting any sign or raising the level of a sign's allowable height.