Flashing signs and blinking lights illuminate and energize some of the nation's largest cities, and several local officials feel that type of high-voltage vitality could benefit downtown Iowa City as well.

"Times Square and Las Vegas were held up as examples of the excitement generated by more elaborate lighted and animated signs," said Iowa City Senior Planner Bob Miklo in a letter to City Council about a discussion of the issue during a recent Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

"During review of the city's sign ordinance, a couple of commissioners voiced a desire to overhaul the regulations for signs in the downtown area in order to allow a more exciting atmosphere and thus promote the downtown and spur economic development."

Commission member Dean Shannon raised the issue after visiting New York City for a national planning conference in 2000.

"I came back and said, 'Wow! I can't believe it,'" Shannon said. "Since we are taking a look at the sign ordinance, why not loosen it up for the central business district? We are trying to promote the downtown, and this is something we can do."

Miklo said that because city officials are in the middle of rewriting the city's zoning code for the first time in 20 years, no major amendments to the sign ordinance have been proposed.

City officials expect to have a first draft of the zoning code rewrite completed later this year. Public hearings will then be scheduled with the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council involving the changes. Shannon said he thinks commissioners will begin discussing changes to the sign ordinance next year.

Miklo said that while Shannon and commission member Jerry Hansen expressed support for the suggested changes to relax the city's sign ordinance, not all commissioners agreed. Miklo said that commissioners Ann Freerks and Don Anciaux were two of those who had some reservations.

Shannon said he started thinking about changing the ordinance after the Iowa City Board of Adjustment approved a special exception for the Englert Civic Theatre to rehabilitate the venue's historic sign, which does not conform with city code. The restoration will include reanimation of the sign, which has lights that operate on running circuits. City law prohibits animated signs with moving parts. Code also limits signs to 12-square-feet and cannot extend above the top of the first story.

While the Englert sign fails to conform, the board was allowed to exempt the Englert from the law because it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.