Community Meetings Next Week

The biggest signs allowed in Reno are reserved for casinos. The city is holding community meetings next week seeking your opinion of allowing other non-casino businesses downtown the same regulations as casinos when it comes to signs.

Please email Lauren Knox at knoxL@reno.gov and tell the city you are opposed to expanding the use of casino sign regulations to other businesses downtown. Or attend one of the virtual community meetings:

General Public Stakeholder Meeting #1 Date: Tuesday, September 24th from 6 p.m. – 7 p.m. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ay73jL0HRnO8hYUe94TYfw

General Public Stakeholder Meeting #2 Date: Friday, September 27th from 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__umHCFvgSTmaWKK8hS3j_w

General Public Stakeholder Meeting #3 Date: Friday, September 27th from Noon – 1 p.m. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lZ7KqD39ScGyFq9xiZ9czA

Currently, only casino signs can be 100 feet tall (or even taller with a special permit). There is no limit on size and lighting, which means the signs can be huge digital ones like the J Resort’s casino (formally the Sands) sign, displaying videos, and flashing, popping, scrolling messages and lights, seven days week and all night long.  That sign faces West Fourth Street and is 4,242 square feet, even larger than the GSR’s jumbotron.

Original Intent of Code Discarded

The city is in the midst of going through the entire city code, making corrections and clarifications since the code was redone in 2021. The sign code was part of that effort. The first proposed version clarified the intent of the sign code to limit the largest signs to casinos in “Gaming Overlay” districts where they are located. Click to see the original changes in the sign code chart.

Inexplicably, the city tossed that version and replaced it with another that allows other businesses downtown to have the biggest, brightest and unlimited signage as casinos.

The first draft made it clear in Footnote 11 that only casinos get the biggest signs. “[11] This section only applies to parcels with legally established Nonrestricted Gaming establishments and does not apply to the broader Gaming Overlay District.”

This draft was presented at community meetings and to the Reno Planning Commission last April, when Assistant Director of Planning Services, Angela Fuss, told commissioners that the changes were to clarify the intent of the regulation.

“We added verbiage to the gaming related sign regulations to clarify that they only apply to legally established gaming establishments in the overlay,” Ms. Fuss said. “…gaming overlay also includes some different buildings that are not casinos and so we don’t want the average pawn shop owner or Burger King to have a10-foot-tall sign. So again inadvertently, we didn’t mean to do that, so we just provided some clarification that if you are in the gaming overlay and you want to use those sign allowances you also have to be a legally established gaming facility. Pretty simple.”

City Reverses Directions on Tall Signs

The city’s position has shifted, for reasons that are not known yet.  Last week a new draft of the sign code chart was circulated. Read it here. Buried in this version is the change to allow other businesses besides casinos the largest signs allowed. It is appalling that the city is not acknowledging the original intent of the sign code and, what’s more, is actually trying to spin the second draft as a reduction in signage.

“The current Code already allows any business located in the Gaming Overlay District to erect a 100-foot sign with no limits on area and lighting,” Ms. Fuss said in an email to Scenic Nevada this week. “We are proposing to reduce the allowed signage by only allowing this flexibility for casino’s and for parcels zoned within Downtown Entertainment zoning district.”

We have many questions for staff, such as, does the “Downtown Entertainment zoning district” extend to West Fourth Street? Will the J Resort owner, Jeff Jacobs, be allowed more gigantic signs on his non-gaming properties there? We’ve asked for a map showing the boundaries of the downtown entertainment district and asked which businesses will be allowed to use the casino sign regulations.  A response from the city is pending.

Community’s Chance to Object

Ms. Fuss said the stakeholder meetings next week are meant to gather feedback to take to the planning commission and city council in October and are not an adoption of anything, yet.

“If the general consensus is support for the staff recommendations, we can include those items in the Zoning Code Clean-Up,” she said. “However, if we have disagreements from the stakeholders and broader community, then we will pull all the sign changes out and process this as a separate text amendment. This would include more stakeholder discussions and a separate process to get through adoption.”

Speak Up Now

It’s frustrating to see the city discard existing sign regulations, which are meant to regulate the proliferation of digital and other signs, and to contemplate replacing existing law with new laws expanding signage meant for gaming properties only to other non-gaming business.  Downtown has a reputation as a tired looking honky-tonk of a place. We see no reason to allow more tacky digital signs to make it worse.

Email Lauren Knox at knoxL@reno.gov and tell city staff you are opposed to allowing other businesses to have the large signs historically reserved for casinos.