The agenda item was originally proposed by the Cultural Affairs Committee (CAC) and several changes were made to their proposed draft by the city attorney before presentation to the Land Development Review Board (LDRB) i.e. - definition of mural, detail on paint quality, prohibition related to certain subject matter and statement related to building owner’s rights in respect to preservation of murals. The LDRB first reviewed the proposed ordinance at their meeting on June 17, 2021 and determined that they would approve the ordinance with two changes.
First, in regard to the review procedure the ordinance limited the number of days for the City Council to review a submission of a proposed mural to thirty (30) days. The LDRB determined that a sixty (60) day period of time would be appropriate. The second item also related to the review procedure and the proposed language would have required City Council members whom voted in opposition of a mural proposal to state their reasons for doing so for the public record and the LDRB struck that language from the proposed ordinance.
Currently, murals are only permitted in the downtown and downtown core future land use categories. The draft ordinance proposed by the CAC and approved by the LDRB opened up the lawful location of murals to anywhere within the city upon buildings used for commercial purposes or for mixed commercial and residential purposes.
The Development Review Committee (DRC) recommended against this provision in large part based on the fact that most cities choose to focus their early arts initiatives in the downtown area for maximum impact. The DRC also indicated that they believed that the location of murals should be limited to buildings that were zoned for commercial use. Murals can certainly be a useful tool for economic development, arts programs and quality-of-place initiatives when properly placed.