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

Heading: Remaining Ward Factors

Text: [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.