The Great Political Signs War of 2024 appears to be not quite over in Boulder City as the planning commission recently voted unanimously to smack down a local bar for flying flags on their roof.
The commission voted on Dec. 18 to deny an application from Maxx’s to have four flagpoles on its roof, which would require a variance as city code currently allows a limit of three. City code also bans new roof signs in that part of town.
The move comes at the end of a contentious election season, which saw constant fights and calls to the city complaining about signs and flags. Most of the complaints were regarding installed flags and signs as well as pop-up mini flag-waving rallies supporting now president-elect Donald Trump.
The popular watering hole on Nevada Way became perhaps the most visible of these when they began flying large Trump flags from the roof last summer, about four months prior to the election. Since the election, the Trump banners have been replaced with four large American flags.
Per city staff, code enforcement in Boulder City is largely reactive, not proactive. That means that, in most cases, code enforcement only gets involved when someone complains. Some of those complaints come via calls to city hall or the city’s SeeClickFix web portal. Others went to the police and Review staff saw a regular stream of such complaints while reading through dispatch reports in order to produce the weekly Police Blotter feature that runs on the Community page. (Note that the Blotter does not appear online, but only in the print edition.)
In a presentation to the commission, City Planner Nakeisha Lyon said that the city began to receive complaints on June 23 and the first notice of violation and order to correct was sent to the owners of the property on July 1. The property owner filed a request for a hearing on July 18 and formally appealed the order to correct on July 30. Following correspondence with the city, the property owner requested an application for a variance on Aug. 6 which put the appeal process on hold. The formal variance request came on Sept. 10 and was revised on Dec. 2.
The property owner, Marcus Caruso, cited the building design as not allowing for ground-level signage that would not block views or interfere with people entering and exiting the building as well as First Amendment grounds, claiming that city code creates, “unusual and extraordinary circumstances necessitating a variance to avoid improperly burdening and curtailing the applicant’s rights of free speech.”
Caruso further claimed that city code, “restricts the applicant’s free exercise of core speech (through the display of flags) in a manner that 1) unduly burdens that exercise, 2) is not narrowly tailored to address legitimate governmental interest and 3) burdens far more speech than is necessary.”
Of note is the fact that Maxx’s is located within an area known as the Motel Sign District that is characterized by “the predominant presence of transient lodging facilities, the majority constructed during the tourist boom of the 1950s through 1970, which have unique sign styles and designs, often mimicking that of old Las Vegas.”
Because of the location, the business would actually need a variance for one additional flag pole and for the installation of a new roof “sign” (i.e., the flags) as the installation of new roof signs in this district is banned without a variance.
Lyon’s presentation also noted that, in terms of flags only, Maxx’s is in compliance with all other parts of city code as far as size of the flags and height of the poles.
When it came time for questions and comments, it became clear that the commission was not buying the free speech angle. Commission member Lorene Krumm, a former city clerk, pointedly asked why the process had taken four months and noted that the business was subject to other code violations during that period.
Commission member Matt Di Teresa noted that some of the American flags flown included extra blue or red stripes meant to show support for police or firefighters and said he was a former Boy Scout and knew that such alterations meant, “it is not an American flag anymore. It’s been defaced.” Di Teresa also called the flying of the political flags an “embarrassment to Boulder City” and said that if the code enforcement takes five months then, “we need to look at our code enforcement procedures.”
Krumm also said she does not care what the content of the flags was.
“The difference between three flags and four flags, if you have three flags which conforms with city code it just makes you sort of patriotic and four flags makes you super patriotic,” she said. “I don’t think it adds any value. The content of the signs doesn’t matter to me whatsoever. It could be flags of Santa Claus.”
Part of the meeting agenda was slated to be a public hearing. However, no member of the public called in or showed up to speak.
The owners of Maxx’s can still appeal the decision of the planning commission to the city council.