The Alexandria Planning and Zoning Commission discussed its 2025 to-do list during its first meeting of the new year.
The two major themes of the meeting were the discussion on implementing a new zone in the city and sign regulations.
New neighborhood commercial zone
Alexandria has zones like highway commercial, old town business, residential and neighborhood shopping center zones. The commission discussed adding a neighborhood commercial zone, which is smaller (less than an acre) than a highway commercial zone but has some overlap with allowed uses.
A highway commercial zone is for things like a car dealership, automotive repairs, boat and marina equipment sales, bakeries, etc.
“They are large clunky businesses, they are not neighborhood friendly businesses,” Campbell County Planning and Zoning Director Cindy Minter said. “It’s best for them and the residential communities that we find a hybrid in there.”
Minter said there is some overlap. She said things in the highway commercial zone that could also work in a neighborhood commercial zone are bakeries, banks, barber shops, candy and ice cream shops, small convenience stores and daycare centers.
“Those may be neighborhood friendly but not necessarily exclusive to highway commercial,” she said.
The zone could be adjacent to a subdivision but not necessarily a major road. In the new year, the commission will decide where they want that zone to be applied.
Minter said this is also something the commission needs to consider as new subdivisions pop up-which she said they will most likely see in the next few years.
Sign regulations
Minter said Alexandria’s sign ordinance is not content-neutral, which means regulating speech without regard to its content, ideas or viewpoint.
Minter said that unless a body has touched its sign ordinance within the last five years, it’s probably not content-neutral. This zoning regulation originates from a Supreme Court ruling.
In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court altered the constitutional framework governing local sign regulations. The court ruled that the Town of Gilbert, Arizona’s sign ordinance violated the First Amendment by imposing different rules based on the signs’ content. Specifically, the court found that the ordinance regulated speech in a content-based manner because determining which rules applied required reading the sign’s message. For example, “ideological signs” and “political signs” had different size, placement and time restrictions compared to temporary directional signs.
She said the biggest struggle for cities arises with temporary signs.
The commission can control form, place, and manner. They can control where it is or how big it is. They can control whether it’s animated or flashing, but if you must read the sign to describe it, it’s not content-neutral.
“The big discussion on that is how you would deal with temporary signs,” Minter said. “The key with signs is if I have to read it to tell what kind of sign it is then I’m not content neutral. If I have to look at it and say ‘oh, that’s a government sign, oh that’s a political sign, oh that’s a sign advertising shoes,’ well, I just read the sign.”
An example of this in the Alexandria zoning ordinance that Minter pointed out is a section that states signs exempt from permits required are political signs, nameplates, government signs and real estate signs. However, the city can’t give an exception for real estate signs. The city could use language such as one temporary sign per property that can remain for three months, but they can’t determine which type of sign can stay and which can’t.
Minter said she plans to work with Alexandria City Attorney Mike Duncan on the language. Signs that already exist will be grandfathered in.
“Neighborhood commercial, we’ve been talking about that for quite a bit and the signs,” Alexandria Planning and Zoning Chair Nick Reitman said. “If you feel like we need to update that-everything you spoke of there just get the ball rolling.”
Some other topics mentioned for the city’s to-do list in the new year are discussing big box store (stores of more than 50,000 square feet) layouts, smoking, and vape shop regulations, and updating its comprehensive plan.
“I would say this is a busy year in terms of this wish list,” Minter said. “Fitting this in amongst other cases you’ve got coming along I think we’re going to be well in the summer to get through this list.”
