COEUR d’ALENE — A sign of the times, for sure.

The Coeur d’Alene City Council voted 6-0 to repeal its 2007 sign code and adopt a new one Tuesday.

The move is primarily being done for legal reasons.

“The City’s current Sign Code contains several sections which would likely lead a court to invalidate it in whole or in part,” according to the staff report.

The change removes restrictions related to content, condenses the code, simplifies sign types and clarifies the enforcement process.

“We put a lot of effort behind this and what we are bringing you today,” said Renata McLeod, municipal services director.

She said a group of “intellectual folks,” including municipal services staff Hilary Anderson, Chris Bosley, Shawn Youngman and Randy Adams, researched the issue extensively. They considered other city, county and state sign codes and ran it by regional planners.

Adams said they made a “reasonable attempt to keep what this council had originally adopted while clearing up so it would withstand legal challenges.”

According to a staff report, in 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the constitutionality of local sign regulations.

In the case of Reed v. Town of Gilbert, the Supreme Court invalidated selected provisions of the Gilbert, Ariz., sign code as being in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Since then, several federal and state courts have analyzed a variety of sign regulations and found many of them unconstitutional, the report said.

“In the opinion of the city’s Legal Department, there are many portions of the City’s current Sign Code which would likely fall in the face of court scrutiny as well,” the report said.

It also said that in recent years, city staff experienced difficulties in the interpretation and enforcement of the current sign code, particularly those involving banners and feather signs, A-frame signs, signage for strip malls, electronic messaging signs and political and other temporary signs.

The new code covers sign placement, size and type, but steers clear of content.

"The courts have been fairly aggressive about finding sign codes unconstitutional if there is even a hint of content-based regulation," the staff report said.

In the Reed case, the Supreme Court wrote: “Content-based laws — those that target speech based on its communicative content — are presumptively unconstitutional and may be justified only if the government proves that they are narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests.”

The 2007 code covered aesthetics, too, and said it should preserve and protect the scenic beauty of Coeur d’Alene and promote a business climate.

That will continue.

“Aesthetics really is important for communities looking at our sign codes,” Hilary Anderson said.

She said the new sign code is “sound from the planning perspective.”

The new code does not affect current billboards, but does prohibit new ones.

It also includes verbiage that if a current billboard is damaged, say in a windstorm, beyond 50% of its value, it cannot be replaced.

Several council members objected to that part.

Councilman Dan Gookin pointed out that if the long-standing Paul Bunyan sign on Northwest Boulevard was damaged, it might have to be taken away under the proposed codes.

“We would hear howls,” he said.

Gookin said he wants the city to be “business friendly.” He suggested a section of the new codes pertaining to billboards, damage and replacement be removed.

“I’d like to see them grandfathered in,” he said.

Councilwoman Christie Wood agreed and said she found that language “not business friendly at all” and wanted it removed, as well.

“I don’t think that’s the right way to treat companies, businesses in this community,” she said.

The council voted 6-0 to remove the sections referenced by Gookin.

The city exempted governmental signs and a few other types of signs from the Sign Code “because staff did not believe the City wants to be in the business of having to issue a permit for everything that could be called a ‘sign.’”