SECTION 9 - City of Punta Gorda

activity that has for a period of at least 30 days not been operated,
conducted or offered, that sign shall be deemed abandoned and shall be
removed or brought into compliance by the sign owner, property owner,
or other party having control over such sign within 15 days after the 30
day period has expired.
(c) Change of Use. If there is a change of use or ownership on a particular piece of
property, and there were one or more on-premise nonconforming signs which
advertised the use, all new signs for the use must meet all sign requirements.
(d) Blank Signs. If a nonconforming sign remains blank for a continuous period of
30 days, that sign shall be deemed abandoned and shall, within an additional 15
days after such abandonment, be altered to comply with this ordinance or be
removed by the sign owner, owner of the property where the sign is located, or
other person having control over such sign. For purposes of this Article, a sign
shall be deemed "blank" if any of the following exists:
(1) It advertises a business, service, commodity, accommodations, attraction,
or other enterprise or activity that is no longer operating or being offered
or conducted.
(2) The advertising message it displays becomes illegible in whole or
substantial part.
(3) It does not contain an advertising message. For such purposes, the terms
"Sign For Rent," "Sign For Lease," "Sign For Sale," etc. shall not be deemed
to be an advertising message.
(e) Notwithstanding any provision of this subsection 26-17.5, the Urban Design
Manager or his/her designee may grant an extension of the time limits
proposed by this subsection for an additional period of time where it is found
that such additional period of time is necessary in order to avoid unnecessary
hardship not caused by the petitioner and such extension is not contrary to the
public interest.
{Ord. No. 1535-08, 1-5, 01-02-08; Ord. No. 1624-09, 1, 12-2-09}
Section 17.6. Nonconforming Lots of Record
(a) When a nonconforming lot of record can be used in conformity with all the
regulations applicable to the intended use, except the lot is smaller than the
required minimums set forth in Article 3, the lot may be used as proposed
just as if it were conforming. However, no use that requires a greater lot size
than the minimum lot size for a particular zone is permissible on a
nonconforming lot.
(b) When the use proposed for a nonconforming lot of record is one that is
conforming in all respects but the applicable setback requirements cannot
be reasonably complied with, the Board of Zoning Appeals may allow
deviations from the applicable setback requirements based upon conditions
found in Article 16.10.
{Ord. No. 1517-07, 1, 11-07-07}
26-205