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The City of LaGrange has placed a 120-day moratorium on issuing permits for commercial standard informational signs.

Currently, commercial signs on residential properties are limited to temporary commercial activities lawfully occurring on the premises—for example, real estate signs and signs regarding ongoing home renovations or landscaping.

The issue was brought up by Councilwoman Darby Pippen, who stated she had received calls about signs that had been put up on several residential streets. Pippen said the signs were permanent-looking wood frame structures that did not have a sign in them yet but appeared to be preparing to do so.

“I reached out to [City Planner Mark] Kostial to see if that was allowed, or if they had been permitted, or what the procedure was,” Pippen said. “The intent for the signs was to not advertise, but what was going to go inside the wood structure was managed by a particular management company. That was what elicited my question.”

Pippen said she wasn’t sure if the signs were to advertise short-term rentals as she only knew of one of the particular homes as being a short-term rental location.

Kostial said that only temporary commercial signs are allowed on residential properties. For example, if a landscaping company wanted to put up a sign indicating that they are working on the property, the sign would need to be taken up when the work is done.

City Manager Patrick Bowie recommended the moratorium as the review of the sign ordinance.

“There are some nuances that we need to work through related to what’s permanent and what’s temporary. You actually can’t regulate speech, so there are some legal issues that [City Attorney Jeff] Todd will have to help us navigate,” Bowie said. “The moratorium gives us time to work through planning and zoning if we need to come back with some recommendations.”

The 120-day moratorium was unanimously approved by the council.