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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
NOTICE OF EMERGENCY AND PROPOSED RULEMAKING
The Director of the D.C. Department of Transportation pursuant to the authority set forth in §§ 6(b) and 7 of the Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002, effective May 21, 2002 (D.C. Law 14-137, D.C. Official Code §§ 50-921.05(b) and 50-921.06) (2009 Repl.); Section 422 of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act of 1973, approved December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 790; D.C. Official Code § 1-204.22 (2006 Repl. & 2011 Supp.)); Title VI of the Fiscal Year 1997 Budget Support Act of 1996, effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-198; D.C. Official Code §§ 10-1141.01, et seq. (2008 Repl. & 2011 Supp.)); and Mayor’s Order 96-8, dated February 9, 1996, hereby gives notice of the intent to adopt the following rules to amend chapter 1 of title 24 of the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations. The emergency and proposed rules will allow all signs that are not lewd, indecent, or vulgar, or do not pictorially represent the commission of or the attempt to commit any crime to be posted on a structure in a public space for one hundred eighty (180) days, and require that a sign related to a specific event be removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event to which it is related.
This emergency rulemaking is necessitated by the immediate need to address the continuing threat to the public welfare posed by a preliminary judicial finding of unequal treatment of non-commercial advertising in the public space. This rulemaking replaces a previous emergency rulemaking that was adopted on August 23, 2011; the same necessity for this rulemaking to become effective immediately remains. However, the previous rulemaking did not contain a definition of the term event and that omission presented some confusion.
This emergency rule was adopted on September 19, 2011, and became effective immediately. This emergency rule will remain in effect until January 17, 2012, one hundred twenty (120) days from the date it became effective, unless earlier superseded by a notice of final rulemaking.
Final rulemaking action to adopt these amendments shall be taken in not less than fifteen (15) days. Pursuant to D.C. Official Code § 2-505 (2006 Repl.), final rulemaking action may be made less than thirty (30) days from publication of proposed rulemaking upon a showing of good cause. The full comment period is not necessary because these rules simply provide a technical amendment to retain the intent of the Council when it passed the Street Sign Regulation Amendment Act of 1979 (D.C. Law 3-50; 26 DCR 2733 (December 21, 1979)), insofar as the rulemaking removes a time limit distinction that exists between certain forms of advertising that has raised First Amendment concerns. This shortened review period will help expedite mitigation of any constitutional concerns.
Title 24 DCMR, Chapter 1, OCCUPATION AND USE OF PUBLIC SPACE, Section 108, SIGNS, POSTERS, AND PLACARDS, is amended as follows:
Subsections 108.5 and 108.6 are amended to read as follows:
108.5 A sign, advertisement, or poster shall be affixed for no more than one hundred eighty (180) days.
108.6 A sign, advertisement, or poster related to a specific event shall be removed no later than thirty (30) days following the event to which it is related. This subsection does not extend the time limit in subsection 108.5.
Subsection 108.11 is amended to read as follows:
108.11 Within twenty-four (24) hours of posting each sign, advertisement, or poster, two (2) copies of the material shall be filed with an agent of the District of Columbia so designated by the Mayor. The filing shall include the name, address, and telephone number of the originator of the sign, advertisement, or poster, and if the sign is for an event, the date of the event.
A new subsection 108.13 is added to read as follows:
108.13 For purposes of this section, the term “event” refers to an occurrence, happening, activity or series of activities, specific to an identifiable time and place, if referenced on the poster itself or reasonably determined from all circumstances by the inspector.
All persons interested in commenting on the subject matter in this proposed rulemaking may file comments in writing, not later than fifteen (15) days after the publication of this notice in the D.C. Register, with Maurice Keys, Acting Associate Director, District Department of Transportation, 55 M Street, S.E., 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20003. Comments may also be sent electronically to publicspace.committee@dc.gov. Copies of this proposal are available, at cost, by writing to the above address, and are also available electronically, at no cost, on the District Department of Transportation’s website at www.ddot.dc.gov.
