Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

ENROLLED ORIGINAL

                                         A RESOLUTION

                                               25-605

                    IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

                                            July 9, 2024

To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend Appendix N of Title

      12-A of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations to ratify and adopt certain sign

      regulations previously issued by the Chairperson of the Construction Codes Coordinating

      Board, the Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and the City

      Administrator, to amend An Act To regulate the erection, hanging, placing, painting,

      display, and maintenance of outdoor signs and other forms of exterior advertising within

      the District of Columbia and the Construction Codes Approval and Amendments Act of

      1986 to clarify the rulemaking process for sign regulations, and to clarify the prohibition

      on off-premises advertising in Appendix N of Title 12-A of the District of Columbia

      Municipal Regulations.

        RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this

resolution may be cited as the “Sign Regulations Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2024”.

        Sec. 2. (a) In July 2016, the City Administrator issued emergency and proposed

regulations that clarified the permitting requirement for signs located inside a building and

required permits for certain signs within a building that are visible outside the building.

        (b) The proposed final regulations were thereafter transmitted to the Council for its

review and approval under section 10 of the Construction Codes Approval and Amendments Act

of 1986, effective March 21, 1987 (D.C. Law 6-216; D.C. Official Code § 6-1409)

(“Construction Codes Act”). After the review period required by the Construction Codes Act, the

Chairman sent the Mayor a letter informing the Mayor that the regulations had been deemed

approved by the Council as of January 18, 2017. The City Administrator thereafter issued final

regulations.

        (c) An advertising corporation that was seeking to operate a large quantity of off-premises

digital advertising signs throughout the District challenged the validity of the regulations in a suit

before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and the Superior Court upheld the

emergency and final regulations.

        (d) On August 11, 2022, however, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that,

despite the District’s longstanding practice of promulgating sign regulations under section 10 of

the Construction Codes Act, section 1 of An Act To regulate the erection, hanging, placing,

painting, display and maintenance of outdoor signs and other forms of exterior advertising within

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the District of Columbia, approved March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1486; D.C. Official Code § 1303.21)

(“Outdoor Sign Regulation Act”), governed the rulemaking. Neither the advertising company

nor the District had relied on the Outdoor Sign Regulation Act during the litigation; the Court of

Appeals raised the issue on its own. The Outdoor Sign Regulation Act requires the Council to

affirmatively approve rules. The Court of Appeals held that the emergency rules adopted by the

City Administrator were not valid because the Council had not affirmatively passed a resolution

approving the rules. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the Superior Court for further

proceedings to determine whether, absent those rules, District law otherwise required the

advertising corporation to obtain permits for its signs.

         (e) The Court of Appeals’ decision not only invalidated the sign regulations at issue, but

also called into question the validity of other sign regulations that had been promulgated under

section 10 of the Construction Codes Act. The decision also altered the Mayor’s rulemaking

authority with respect to signs in ways the Council had not intended, and it threatened to

undermine the Mayor’s ability to promulgate emergency sign rules.

         (f) To ensure that the Court of Appeals’ decision would not undermine the District’s

efforts to prevent the proliferation of unpermitted outdoor and externally visible advertising signs

or the Mayor’s ability to issue emergency sign rules, the Council passed emergency and

temporary legislation on October 18, 2022, and November 1, 2022, respectively, and subsequent

emergency and temporary legislation on September 19, 2023, and October 3, 2023. The

emergency and temporary legislation ratified and adopted emergency and final sign regulations

that had been promulgated by the City Administrator, the Chairperson of the Construction Codes

Coordinating Board, and the Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs

under section 10 of the Construction Codes Act. The legislation made the substance of the

regulations effective both prospectively and retroactively to the effective date set forth in each of

the applicable rulemaking notices. The legislation also clarified that the Mayor can issue sign

regulations under section 10 of the Construction Codes Act until the Mayor issues a

comprehensive set of new sign regulations under the Outdoor Sign Regulation Act, and the

legislation amended the Outdoor Sign Regulation Act to include a reference to Title I of the

District of Columbia Administrative Procedure Act, approved October 21, 1968 (82 Stat. 1204;

D.C. Official Code § 2-501 et seq.). These changes were made to preserve the Mayor’s

rulemaking authority for signs under section 10 of the Construction Codes and to clarify that the

Mayor has emergency rulemaking authority under the Outdoor Sign Regulation Act. Finally, the

legislation clarified that the District’s off-premises advertising restriction applies to both

permitted and unpermitted signs and applies to signs regardless of whether they were subject to

the District’s sign rules at the time they were erected. The Council determined that this

clarification was needed to avoid a proliferation of off-premises advertising signs in the

downtown area and District neighborhoods because off-premises advertising signs are generally

inconsistent with the history and character of the District.

         (g) The current temporary legislation is projected to expire on August 1, 2024.

         (h) There continues to be a need to ensure that the Court of Appeals’ decision does not

undermine the District’s efforts to prevent the proliferation of unpermitted outdoor and externally

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visible advertising signs or the Mayor’s ability to issue emergency sign rules.

        (i) The provisions of the Sign Regulations Emergency Amendment Act of 2024 are

substantively identical to the provisions in the earlier emergency and temporary acts and address

the District’s goals and needs described in subsections (f) and (h) of this section.

        (j) The adoption of the Sign Regulations Emergency Amendment Act of 2024 will also

prevent a gap in the law as the Council advances permanent legislation.

       Sec. 3. The Council determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute

emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Sign Regulations Emergency Amendment

Act of 2024 be adopted after a single reading.

       Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.

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