Federal lawsuit challenges enforcement of Neenah sign ordinance as content-neutral
NEENAH - A Neenah couple who was ordered to remove a yard sign has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city’s sign ordinance.
Tim and Megan Florek contend that the enforcement of the ordinance violates their First Amendment rights to free speech. They are represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty of Milwaukee.
"The city’s sign ordinance is unconstitutional," Tim Florek said in a statement Monday, "and we as a community have every right to express our ideas — even through a simple yard sign."
City Attorney David Rashid previously defended the ordinance, noting cities can regulate signs as long as the enforcement is content-neutral. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday but sent an email Wednesday saying the city will be using outside counsel to defend itself.
"Neither I nor the mayor will be making any comment to the press regarding this suit at this time," Rashid said in the email.
Neenah ordered the Floreks to remove a yard sign saying "Don’t Rezone Shattuck Middle School Leave R-1 Alone" from their property for violating the sign ordinance.
The sign has been in place since Dec. 7, when the Common Council rejected a request from Northpointe Development Corp. to rezone the Shattuck property to a Traditional Neighborhood Development District to accommodate apartments.
Neenah's municipal code limits temporary, portable signs on residential properties to "30 days within a 90-day period."
The notice of violation was dated Jan. 9 and gave the Floreks until Feb. 8 to remove the sign. The penalty for noncompliance is a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $500.
Other residents throughout the city who had portable signs on their property for more than 30 days within a 90-day period also were sent a notice of violation, Rashid said previously, regardless of what the signs said.
More: Appleton twins begin careers as Neenah police officers, following path of their father
More: Number of buyers for Neenah's Shattuck school property stands at two, and Northpointe was first
The lawsuit alleges the Neenah sign ordinance is unconstitutional because it imposes different regulations based on what a sign says. The Floreks could place a "No trespassing" sign or a "For sale" sign in their front yard indefinitely, the lawsuit says, but are limited to 30 days "for their chosen political message."
"Some city officials may disagree with the Floreks and the others who oppose rezoning of the property," the lawsuit says, "but the city (through the Police Department and Code Enforcement) does not get to choose sides, determining who can speak on this issue and in what manner they may speak."
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent the city from enforcing the sign ordinance. It also seeks nominal damages, costs and attorney fees.
Northpointe requested the rezoning to redevelop the Shattuck property into apartments, single-family homes and parkland. It has an accepted offer to purchase the property from the Neenah Joint School District for $500,000, but the offer is contingent upon the city rezoning the property.
After the rezoning was rejected in December, the Neenah school board granted Northpointe an extension on its offer to give it more time to rework its plan.
Shattuck Middle School will become vacant in June because the school district is building a $171 million high school in Fox Crossing and will turn the existing high school on Tullar Road into a middle school for grades 5-8 starting with the 2023-24 school year.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Click to see The Post-Crescent's special offers at postcrescent.com/subscribe and download our app on the App Store or Google Play.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Neenah faces federal lawsuit over enforcement of sign ordinance
