The county has started a process to change rules related to electronic church signs a few months after a York County supervisor asked for the county to examine the current rules.
The current rules allow electronic signs in front of churches to change the message once every 24 hours. Under the proposed rule changes, the message/image on the sign’s screen could change as frequently as every eight seconds. The change would afford to churches the same sign privileges currently enjoyed by shopping centers.
“The representatives who requested consideration of this amendment indicated a desire to be able to offer more information concerning scheduled events and/or community services (e.g., available sheltering during severe weather events) than can be displayed in a single, 24-hour duration electronic message,” wrote Assistant County Administrator J. Mark Carter in a memorandum to the York County Planning Commission.
The commission will consider whether to amend the rules related to church signs at their Wednesday meeting. They will issue a recommendation to the York County Board of Supervisors, which will then make a final decision on whether to accept the amendment.
Shopping centers were allowed to begin showing more than one message/image in a 24-hour period after the rules were amended for them in 2009. That amendment was accepted after a request from the owner of Kiln Creek Shopping Center, which remains the only electronic message sign allowed to change more than once every 24 hours in York County.
Carter noted staff was unable to find any “definitive research findings” suggesting that changing-message signs would pose a distraction to motorists.
“Approval of this amendment will allow those churches that currently have electronic message signs to increase their daily information content while allowing those considering an investment in such a sign to know that it can be used to display multiple messages during the course of a 24-hour period,” Carter wrote in the memorandum. He went on to say the county’s planning staff recommends approving the amendment.
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