Opinion ID: 3035963
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Content Neutrality of the Remaining

Text: Provisions of the Sign Plaintiffs next contend that even if the City may properly regulate and restrict their pole sign, the Code impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment rights of third parties. At the outset we note that plaintiffs need not establish standing of Ladue, 512 U.S. at 54. However, plaintiffs do not prove that pole signs occupy such a “venerable” position in Lake Oswego. For example, there is no explanation why plaintiffs consider pole signs to be “unique and important” in Lake Oswego or that monument or on-building signs would not effectively serve plaintiffs’ communicative interests. Indeed, other businesses encouraged the City to have monument signs replace pole signs. See Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. at 812 (“Notwithstanding appellees’ general assertions in their brief concerning the utility of political posters, nothing in the findings indicates that the posting of political posters on public property is a uniquely valuable or important mode of communication, or that appellees’ ability to communicate effectively is threatened by ever-increasing restrictions on expression.”). For this reason, plaintiffs’ as-applied challenge to the Sign Code as “banning a medium” also fails. G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1115 prior to bringing this form of facial challenge, which seeks to invalidate the entire ordinance. See Foti, 146 F.3d at 635 (“The second type of facial challenge is an exception to our general standing requirements: the plaintiff argues that the statute is written so broadly that it may inhibit the constitutionally protected speech of third parties, even if his own speech may be prohibited. A successful challenge to the facial constitutionality of a law invalidates the law itself.”) (internal citations omitted). In evaluating plaintiffs’ facial challenge, we apply the same content-neutrality test articulated in Ward and addressed more fully above in our discussion of the Code’s pole sign restriction.
Plaintiffs identify several portions of the Code that they urge us to hold content based. The vast majority of plaintiffs’ identified provisions clearly are not content — or viewpoint — based. There is no indication either on the face of the ordinance or in the evidence in the record that the City’s purpose in adopting the Sign Code, and its size and type restrictions, was to regulate speech on the basis of content. See Madsen v. Women’s Health Ctr., 512 U.S. 753, 763 (1994) (“We . . . look to the government’s purpose as the threshold consideration.”); see also City of Ladue, 512 U.S. at 48 (“It is common ground that governments may regulate the physical characteristics of signs. . . .”); Foti, 146 F.3d at 640 (“We have upheld restrictions on the size and aggregate area of signs posted on private property based on a city’s interests in aesthetics.”) (internal citations omitted). Although most of the provisions describe the type and dimensions of permissible signs, plaintiffs do identify a few potentially suspect portions of the Code, quoting Foti, 146 F.3d at 636, and asserting that “in this circuit a regulation of speech is ‘content-based [if] a law enforcement officer must read a sign’s message to determine if the sign is [regulated.]’ ” These possibly content-based provisions are: (1) An 1116 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO exemption from the permit requirement for public signs, hospital or emergency signs, legal notices, railroad signs and danger signs, LOC § 47.06.205(4); and for temporary signs during enumerated events, like elections, LOC § 47.08.300(B) (1)(a) (during elections, residents are exempt from the permit requirements otherwise imposed on temporary signs). (2) One section that grandfathers in old, nonconforming signs but requires these signs to conform with the regulations when the sign is altered. LOC §§ 47.04.100, 47.04.102. (3) The design review provision (incorporated into the Code’s permitting process) that requires City officials to review signs for clarity and readability. LOC § 47.06.200(5). We review each provision below, and hold that neither the Code as a whole nor these provisions in particular regulate speech on the basis of content. Therefore, the Sign Code is content neutral.
Requirement
Section 47.06.205(4) provides, “public signs, signs for hospital or emergency services, legal notices, railroad signs and danger signs” must comply with the Sign Code, but need not be subject to the City’s permit and fee process. Plaintiffs insist that the limited exemptions of section 47.06.205(4) render the Sign Code content based because the City is expressing a preference for certain types of speech. We disagree. [12] The City interprets these provisions as providing exemptions to certain speakers and not to particular content. 9 We do not understand plaintiffs as challenging the speaker-based exemptions of LOC § 47.06.205(4) on equal protection grounds. Cf. Foti, 146 F.3d at 637-38 (refusing to address whether a picketing and sign ordinance that granted an exemption for government speech violated equal protection because plaintiffs failed to present these arguments to the district court). G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1117 See G.K. Ltd. Travel I, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6984 at ; see also LOC § 47.03.015 (defining public signs as “a sign erected and maintained by a public agency within the right-ofway of a street or alley”). Like the district court, we hold this construction to be reasonable.10 The Supreme Court in Turner Broad. Sys., Inc. v. FCC stated [S]peaker-based laws demand strict scrutiny when they reflect the Government’s preference for the substance of what the favored speakers have to say (or aversion to what the disfavored speakers have to say) . . . . [L]aws favoring some speakers over others demand strict scrutiny when the legislature’s speaker preference reflects a content preference. 512 U.S. at 658. In this case, the Sign Code reflects the City’s preference for not subjecting certain entities — public agencies, hospitals and railroad companies — to the requirements of the permitting and fee scheme.11 The exemptions are purely 10 In evaluating § 47.06.205(4) of the Sign Code, the district court found that exempting legal notices and danger signs from the permit and fee requirements of the Code was constitutionally impermissible. The district court reasoned that there are no obvious owners for legal notices or danger signs (as opposed to hospital or railroad signs) and the City’s limiting construction was therefore inapplicable. The court ordered these subsections severed from the ordinance, relying on Desert Outdoor Adver. where we concluded that exemptions in a sign ordinance for “official notices” and “warning” signs were content based. See G.K. Ltd. Travel I, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6984 at  (citing Desert Outdoor Adver., 103 F.3d at 820). The City has not appealed the district court’s ruling and we do not rule on the constitutionality of the severed exemptions. 11 We have previously questioned the constitutionality of a “wholesale exemption for government speech,” but we do not read Lake Oswego’s Sign Code to provide such an exemption. See Foti, 146 F.3d at 637. Rather, the public agency exemption applies only to the permitting scheme; public agencies are otherwise required to follow the substantive requirements of the Sign Code. See LOC § 47.06.205 (“The following 1118 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO speaker based according to the City’s reasonable construction of the provision and say nothing of the City’s preference for the content of these speakers’ messages, nor do they allow the City to discriminate against disfavored speech. That is, plaintiffs have not shown that the City preferred the substance of railroad company messages, for instance, over travel agency messages and therefore exempted the railroad companies from the permitting process. See One World One Family Now v. City & County of Honolulu, 76 F.3d 1009, 1012 n.5 (9th Cir. 1996) (“Because [the] exemptions don’t enable the city to discriminate against ideas it disfavors, they don’t render the ordinance content-based.”). Moreover, these institutional speakers are still subject to the mandates of the Sign Code concerning the type, number and characteristics of signs that are permissible in the City; it is just that certain speakers need not obtain permits (and pay the associated fee) before posting their signs. That the law affects plaintiffs more than other speakers does not, in itself, make the law content based. See Ward, 491 U.S. at 791 (“A regulation that serves purposes unrelated to the content of expression is deemed neutral, even if it has an incidental effect on some speakers or messages but not others.”).
[13] Likewise, the permit exemption for temporary signs in residential zones is not content based. Indeed, the provision creating this exemption explicitly demands content neutrality. See LOC § 47.08.300(B)(1) (“In any residential zone temporary signage shall be allowed for each and every lot. This signage shall not be restricted by content, but is usually and signs shall comply with all provisions and regulations of this chapter; However [sic], no fee, permit or application is required.”). Furthermore, the exemption here for public signs is more narrowly drawn because the Code exempts only those signs “erected and maintained by a public agency within the right-of-way of a street or alley.” LOC § 47.03.015. G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1119 customarily used to advertise real estate sales, political or ideological positions, garage sales, home construction or remodeling, etc.”) (emphasis added). Section 47.08.300(B) imposes only temporal and size restrictions on temporary signs. For example, homeowners may erect a temporary sign concerning any topic whatsoever on their property without a permit so long as that sign goes up not more than 90 days prior to an election, stays up not more than five days following the election and is no larger than six square feet. See LOC § 47.08.300(B)(1)(a). Likewise, a homeowner may put up “[o]ne temporary sign not exceeding six square feet provided the sign is removed within fifteen days from the sale, lease or rental of the property or within seven days of completion of any construction or remodeling.” LOC § 47.08.300(B)(1)(b). Such exemptions indicate the City’s recognition that during certain times, more speech is demanded by the citizenry because of the event (e.g., a real estate transaction or election) but the City does not limit the substance of this speech in any way. The exemption for temporary signs does not manifest the City’s desire to prefer certain types of speech or regulate signage by its content. Therefore, this exemption, too, is content neutral. Neither the speaker- nor event-based exemptions implicate Foti insofar as neither requires law enforcement officers to “read a sign’s message to determine if the sign is exempted from the ordinance.” Foti, 146 F.3d at 636. In the speaker category, officers decide whether an exemption applies by identifying the entity speaking through the sign without regard for the actual substance of the message. In the case of eventbased exemptions to the permitting process, the officer must determine only whether a specific triggering event has occurred and if the temporary sign has been erected within the specified time frame. Plainly, the City anticipates that signs will relate to the triggering event, but the ordinance, by its own terms, does not mandate the temporary sign comply with content restrictions. Although it may seem “bizarre” to plaintiffs to read the ordinance as allowing temporary signs, 1120 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO regardless of content, during certain events, this is precisely what the ordinance says and it reveals the extent the City is willing to go to avoid content-based restrictions on expression. See G.K. Ltd. Travel I, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6984 at .
Plaintiffs argue that the Sign Code’s grandfather clause, LOC § 47.04.100(1), is content based under Foti because, in order to evaluate whether the pre-existing sign must now conform to the Code, the City official must “read [the] sign’s message” and determine whether there has been a “change of logo and/or message upon the face” of the sign or if the sign has otherwise been altered.12 See Foti, 146 F.3d at 636; LOC § 47.03.015 (defining “change of copy”). Plaintiffs attempt to broaden Foti to stand for the proposition that any time an ordinance requires a law enforcement officer to read a sign, the ordinance must be content based. We reject such an expansive reading. The Foti test actually turns on “whether the ordinance singles out certain speech for differential treatment based on the idea expressed,” id. at 636 n.7; enforcement officials having to read a sign is persuasive evidence of such a purpose but may not always be dispositive. In Foti, we evaluated a Menlo Park ordinance banning all signs on all public property. The law, however, exempted “open house,” safety, traffic and public information signs. Relying on our earlier ruling in Desert Outdoor Adver. v. City of Moreno Valley, 103 F.3d 814, 820 (9th Cir. 1996), we concluded that these exemptions were content based “because a law enforcement officer must read a sign’s message to determine if the sign is exempted from the ordinance.” Foti, 146 F.3d at 636. Menlo Park was clearly expressing a preference 12 In regards to pole signs, the Code’s grandfather clause lapsed as of May 21, 2004. See LOC § 47.04.100(5). In regards to other types of signs, however, the grandfather clause remains in force. G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1121 for certain types of signs by exempting them from the city’s general prohibition. The only way to determine if a sign was the type qualified to receive Menlo Park’s favorable treatment was to evaluate the content and substantive message of the sign. [14] Unlike in Menlo Park, here, City officials have to read signs only to determine whether the text of the sign or a logo on the sign has changed — i.e., whether it is a verbatim replication of the original text or an exact duplication of the previous logo. As the City notes, even those who speak no English could perform this superficial review function by placing the former sign next to the new sign and examining the characters and elements on both. Unlike Foti’s exemptions, the grandfather clause does not require Lake Oswego officials to evaluate the substantive message on the preexisting sign and the clause certainly does not favor speech “based on the idea expressed.” Id. at 636 n.7. A grandfather provision requiring an officer to read a sign’s message for no other purpose than to determine if the text or logo has changed, making the sign now subject to the City’s regulations, is not content based. See Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 720 (2000) (“We have never held, or suggested, that it is improper to look at the content of an oral or written statement in order to determine whether a rule of law applies to a course of conduct.”).
[15] Section 47.06.200(5) allows City officials, during the permitting process, to review signs for “clarity and readability.” Plaintiffs suggest that this provision allows City officials to prefer certain speech and regulate all messages on the basis of content. The City counters by offering a limiting construction, asserting that clarity and readability refer only to legibility and not intelligibility. G.K. Ltd. Travel I, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6984 at . Without the City’s construction, the provision would be suspect; however, we consider the City’s limiting construction reasonable. See Village of Hoffman Estates 1122 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 494 n.5 (1982) (“In evaluating a facial challenge to a state law, a federal court must, of course, consider any limiting construction that a state court or enforcement agency has proffered.”). Review for legibility entails, for example, an official reading a sign to ensure that its text is visible from streets so as not to distract passing motorists. Legibility review does not allow the City to regulate the substance of the message contained in a sign. We hold that the design review provision, as limited by the City’s construction, is content neutral.

[16] The Sign Code, in total, is a content-neutral regulation of speech. We must still determine whether the Code is narrowly tailored to achieve significant government interests and leaves open ample alternative channels for communication. As explained in our discussion of the pole sign regulation, part II.B supra, the City’s interests in regulating speech to preserve aesthetics and protect traffic and traveler safety are significant.
[17] We have already concluded that the pole sign restriction is narrowly tailored and similarly conclude that the remainder of the Sign Code’s regulations are narrowly tailored to achieve the City’s significant interests. The City’s regulations, limiting the type, size and number of signs permissible within its borders, are “reasonable legislative judgments in light of the City’s concern[s] . . . .” Foti, 146 F.3d at 641.13 For example, pole signs and internally illuminated signs may distract travelers as they are driving down the 13 Further evidence of the City’s desire to tailor the Sign Code is found in the Code’s variance procedure. City officials may grant a variance so a party can avoid the strictures of the Code where “[s]trict application of the [C]ode requirement would deny the applicant a reasonable opportunity to communicate by sign in a manner similar to like persons or uses because of an unusual or unique circumstance . . . .” LOC § 47.12.500(2)(A). G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1123 City’s streets, posing a hazard to traffic safety. See id. (“A fifteen square foot sign carried by a protester on a public sidewalk, when compared to a three square foot sign, may block drivers’ views of road signs and traffic conditions, intimidate pedestrians, and obstruct the safe and convenient circulation of pedestrians on the sidewalk.”) Additionally, the proliferation of temporary signs in the City’s residential zones may create visual clutter and otherwise distract from the City’s neat and orderly appearance. Without these restrictions, it is difficult to imagine how the City would achieve its goals of preserving aesthetics and protecting traffic safety. “Here, no less restrictive means of accomplishing the government’s objectives is readily apparent.” Bland, 88 F.3d at 736; see also Ward, 491 U.S. at 799 (“[T]he requirement of narrow tailoring is satisfied so long as the . . . regulation promotes a substantial government interest that would be achieved less effectively absent the regulation.”) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted).
[18] In Taxpayers for Vincent, the Supreme Court evaluated a severely restrictive Los Angeles ordinance prohibiting the posting of signs on public property. 466 U.S. 789 (1984). The Court upheld this prohibition as a valid, content-neutral time, place or manner restriction. In its discussion of the availability of ample alternative channels for communication, the Court noted, The Los Angeles ordinance does not affect any individual’s freedom to exercise the right to speak and to distribute literature in the same place where the posting of signs on public property is prohibited. To the extent that the posting of signs on public property has advantages over these forms of expression, there is no reason to believe that these same advantages cannot be obtained through other means. To the contrary, the findings of the District Court indi1124 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO cate that there are ample alternative modes of communication in Los Angeles. Notwithstanding appellees’ general assertions in their brief concerning the utility of political posters, nothing in the findings indicates that the posting of political posters on public property is a uniquely valuable or important mode of communication, or that appellees’ ability to communicate effectively is threatened by everincreasing restrictions on expression. Id. at 812 (internal citation omitted). Similarly, the Sign Code, although significantly restricting pole signs and regulating the type and manner of other signs, does not threaten the ability of Lake Oswego residents to “communicate effectively.” Residents of the City may resort to any number of alternative channels for communication; indeed, the Code does not prohibit residents from communicating through signs so long as those signs otherwise comply with the Code’s restrictions.14 [19] We hold that the Sign Code is a valid content-neutral restriction on the time, place or manner of speech, narrowly tailored to serve the City’s significant interests without impermissibly limiting the alternative channels for communication. “[T]he ordinance does not create an unacceptable threat to the ‘profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.’ ” Id. at 817 (citing New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964)). IV. Commercial/Noncommercial Speech Distinction [20] “[A]n ordinance is invalid if it imposes greater restrictions on noncommercial than on commercial billboards or 14 Several sections of the Code list allowable signs (subject to the City’s permitting process), including, in various zones, blade, cornice, awning, monument, window and canopy signs. See LOC §§ 47.10.410(D), 47.10.412(1), 47.10.415, 47.10.420. G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO 1125 regulates noncommercial billboards based on their content.” Nat’l Adver. Co. v. City of Orange, 861 F.2d 246, 248 (9th Cir. 1988) (citing Metromedia, 453 U.S. at 513, 516). Plaintiffs claim that various subsections of section 47.08.300, regulating temporary signs in residential zones, violate Metromedia’s rule. Section 47.08.300 contains a list of events (e.g., an election or the sale, lease or rental of a property), the occurrence of which allows a resident to erect a temporary sign, not exceeding listed dimensions, for a limited time period. The City states that temporary signs need not concern a specific, enumerated topic, such as the sale of property, but can be about any subject matter so long as the sign is displayed during the relevant time period and is within the Code’s size limits. [21] The sections challenged do not indicate the City’s preference for commercial speech nor do they regulate based on the content of speech. See LOC § 47.08.300(B)(1) (“This signage shall not be restricted by content . . . .”). Rather, the regulations exempt signs from the Code’s permit requirement during certain events. For example, 90 days prior to an election and five days afterwards, a resident may erect a temporary sign not exceeding six square feet without a permit. § 47.08.300 (B)(1)(a). The City insists that the temporary sign could contain a purely commercial message so long as it meets the Code’s temporal and size limitations. The district court was convinced by the City’s argument, stating, “it is a fair reading of the provisions and demonstrates the lengths to which the City has gone to regulate signs without doing so on the basis of content.” G.K. Ltd. Travel I, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6984 at . The fact that no officer must read the temporary sign’s message to determine if it falls into the Code’s permit exemption further evidences the content neutrality of the temporary sign provision. See Nat’l Adver. Co., 861 F.2d at 248. [22] We are similarly convinced that section 47.08.300 does not impermissibly favor commercial over noncommer1126 G.K. LTD. TRAVEL v. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO cial messages, nor does it regulate noncommercial messages on the basis of content. Where, as here, the Code is “neutral with respect to noncommercial messages,” the Metromedia concern about cities distinguishing between myriad communicative interests is not implicated. Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 340 F.3d 810, 814 (9th Cir. 2003); see also Metromedia, 453 U.S. at 514.