ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against the City of Atlanta, two local businesses are seeking injunctive relief from enforcement related to nonconforming signs under a 1982 sign ordinance they allege is unconstitutional in its entirety.
Robbins, Ross, Alloy, Belinfante, and Littlefield, LLC filed the suit March 29 on behalf of the owners of Multimedia Technologies, Inc. and Peach Hospitality of Georgia, LLC. The suit alleges the signs have been in place since 1993 and been continuously approved and re-approved by the city since that time.
The city has claimed the signs are now considered illegal under a 1982 ordinance, based on a 2019 Fulton County Superior Court decision which indicated the original permits were improperly issued, the suit says. Yet, the plaintiffs hold that the court decision never addressed whether the 1982 ordinance is unconstitutional in its entirety.
The suit alleges that the 1982 ordinance, being content-based, violates both the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It also alleges the city was aware of the fact based on a 2015 amendment to the sign code that eliminated content-based restrictions, including restrictions on which the city is basing its current actions.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to both declare the entirety of the 1982 sign ordinance unconstitutional, and provide permanent injunctive relief from enforcement.