City Council Meeting Date: November 10, 2026
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Mathias Hughey, AICP, Associate City Planner
Title
First Reading of Ordinance 1099 Approving Text Amendments Related to Signs on Athletic Fields.
Body
Action Requested:
The City Council will review and approve Ordinance 1099 modifying Article 6, and Article 9 of the Land Development Code (LDC) to permit and regulate off-premise advertising at specified Northfield School District- and City of Northfield-owned athletic fields.
Summary Report:
Background
The Northfield Public School District has asked staff to consider presenting amendments to Article 6 of the Land Development Code to establish an avenue and clear standards for signage associated with athletic fields on District-owned property and City-owned public park property. Currently, the District has sold and installed nonconforming advertising facing Division Street on outfield fences, advertising on existing outdoor scoreboards, and proposes adding additional advertising and a large digital video screen to a new scoreboard for the stadium.
City Code prohibits these signs in several ways, including prohibiting any structure designed for the purpose of selling advertising space or identifying off-site businesses. The District is seeking to allow advertising signage on scoreboards and fencing to generate revenue and create financial participation options for businesses. Local youth-sports organizations have also installed non-conforming off-premise advertising at City-owned athletic fields to help fund their operations.
Staff have prepared proposed amendments intended to establish a more specific regulatory framework for scoreboards, athletic field fence signs, and private wayfinding signs that do not clearly fit within the existing permanent or temporary sign categories. While also retaining the community’s long-standing protections against off-premise advertising.
The proposed amendments provid...
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