§ 118-131. Conditions for issuing operating permit.

(a)

Every sign must have an operating permit.

(b)

In order to receive an operating permit, every sign existing on April 14, 1983, must conform to the requirements of division 2 of article III of this chapter and sections 118-167 through 118-178 when an operating permit is issued. With reference to the remainder of this chapter, all signs existing on April 14, 1983, must conform to the requirements of this chapter as follows:

(1)

Existing portable signs must conform with the requirements of section 118-166 at the time an operating permit is issued.

(2)

All other existing signs need not conform if they were legally and properly permitted or legally and properly exempt from having a permit prior to April 14, 1983, provided that when constructed such signs were built in accordance with the building code. If such existing signs were not legally erected and maintained prior to April 14, 1983, they shall conform to the requirements of this chapter before an operating permit may be issued.

(3)

Signs previously erected or in the process of being erected in an unincorporated area and the area is thereafter annexed by the city shall be considered as existing sign under this subsection. However, the date of the first publication of notice for a public hearing, as required by V.T.C.A., Local Government Code §§ 43.052 and 43.053, regarding the proposed annexation of the area wherein such signs are located shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be considered the date of passage of this chapter to determine the applicability of this chapter to such signs. Any sign required by any proper authority to be licensed or permitted in an unincorporated area and not so licensed or permitted when such area is annexed by the city shall not be considered to have been legally permitted for the purposes of this subsection.

(c)

When any sign or a substantial part of a sign is destroyed, damaged or taken down or removed for any purpose other than maintenance operations or for changing the letters, symbols or other matter on such sign, it shall not be reerected, reconstructed or rebuilt, except in full conformance with this chapter. A sign or substantial part of it is considered to have been destroyed only if the cost of repairing the sign is more than 60 percent of the cost of erecting a new sign of the same type at the same location.

(Code 1967, § 25½-5(G); Ord. No. 3593, § 1, 4-14-83; Ord. No. 3705, § 1, 10-27-83; Ord. No. 4123, § 2, 4-11-85; Ord. No. 5360, § 1, 9-14-89; Ord. No. 5493, §§ 1, 2, 3-8-90; Ord. No. 7215, § 1, 1-26-95; Ord. No. 7746, §§ 1, 2, 7-11-96)