Panel Proposes Changes to Strict Sign Law : Glendale: The Planning Commission recommends lifting the ban on flags, banners and balloons.

The Glendale Planning Commission on Monday recommended a series of changes in the city’s stringent sign ordinance, the target of angry protests when it was adopted 20 years ago and challenged all the way to the state Supreme Court.

Commissioners recommended more lenient rules, including lifting the ban on flags, banners and balloons, which merchants violate regularly and even city-funded promotions ignore.

The new rules will provide “greater flexibility rather than black-and-white prohibitions,” according to a planning department report. More permissive rules in the zoning code would allow wall signs on the second floor of buildings, set guidelines for signs on high-rise buildings and allow for some projecting signs.

Many signs ordered removed because of the current ordinance, including some that were considered historically significant, would have been spared by proposed new rules.

The ordinance was challenged as a violation of the right to free speech almost immediately after it was adopted in 1973. While the city prevailed in all of the court challenges, the legal action prompted officials to delay enforcement of the rules until 1983, when about 1,500 businesses were cited for failing to comply.

Some merchants were so angered that they defied the prohibition against banners, for instance, by flying American flags and daring traditionally conservative city officials to order them removed.

The flags stayed under an exemption granted for “the official flag, emblem or insignia of a government.” But that rule is about to change under new provisions banning the use of official flags for advertising purposes.

The Planning Commission recommendations are expected to be brought before the City Council June 29.