CONYERS — Last weekend’s city retreat brought about some changes to development requirements within Conyers city limits, including future changes to the city’s sign ordinance.

One of the changes will make the law “content-neutral” for shopping and individual businesses, explained Planning and Zoning Director Marvin Flanigan. The only difference made in the new ordinance involves signs for residential or non-residential structures.

“Now it’s going to be lumped together,” Flanigan said. “It has to be such that you’re not giving one more advantage than the other.”

In the proposed draft from staff, the maximum size of the signs will be the aggregate total of the building’s primary size — meaning “the bigger the building, the bigger the sign,” explained Flanigan. Shopping centers that are 1 to 10,000 square feet would be able to have a maximum 150-square-foot sign.

The maximum height for ground signs for individual businesses and shopping centers was reduced to 20 feet under the proposed ordinance.

Citing the need for continuity, Flanigan urged officials to carefully consider accepting the staff’s recommendation.

The group agreed it made sense for the city’s overlay district to be more restrictive since what is in the overlays should look different from what is outside the overlay.

“You’re giving them something in order to get something,” said Mayor Randy Mills. “We’re giving them density and we’re saying build smaller signs. It’s a give and take.”

There were concerns from the group on how the new conditions might affect those businesses that already exist on Ga. Highway 138. Flanigan said those current signs would be grandfathered in and sign restrictions along Interstate 20 would not change.

There would also be more restrictions on the allowable distance between billboards in the proposed ordinance, increasing from 500 feet to 1,000 feet.

“We’ll look at it a little bit closer before we bring it to the council for adoption and do a little more research,” Flanigan said of the ordinance.

The proposed changes to the sign ordinance will be going to committee for review and a recommendation is planned for the near future.