Professor Alan Weinstein

On May 8, C|M|LAW and Levin College of Urban Affairs Professor Alan Weinstein provided a 1-hour CLE session titled, “Legal and Practical Issues in Regulating Signs & Billboards,” to the Northeast Ohio Law Directors Association. The Association members serve as law directors for cities, villages and townships. Professor Weinstein’s presentation focused on how a city’s sign regulations can balance first amendment concerns, principally content-neutrality, with achieving land-use regulatory goals of traffic safety, effective way-finding and aesthetics.  He noted that one effective technique is to key regulation to events rather than to sign-content.  Thus, for example, instead of the code defining the content of a “construction” sign and regulating when/where such a sign may be displayed, the code defines the event of “construction” and then regulates when/where a sign may be displayed on that site regardless of content.