Forsyth acts on signs, interchange

Reacting to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has approved a 30-day moratorium on applications for and erection of signs.

The moratorium goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday and is designed to give the county’s lawyers time to study the sign ordinance to make sure not it’s not inconsistent with the Court’s decision in Reed v. Gilbert. The court ruled in that case that Gilbert, Arizona’s sign code included content-based regulations of speech that don’t survive strict scrutiny and are presumptively unconstitutional.

Forsyth’s moratorium includes two exceptions, one allowing so-called “expression signs” and another involving signs put up under permits applied for before the moratorium goes into effect.