The Alexandria City Council, on Saturday (Sept. 14), will consider loosening its citywide mural requirements.
Following the Planning Commission’s unanimous approval on Sept. 4, the City Council will conduct a public hearing on whether to allow entire walls to be taken up by murals, provided that “distracting elements” such as “any text, numbers, symbols, logos, or trademarks” are limited to one per multi-unit property.
Murals have popped up all over Alexandria over the last several years.
Additionally, the city is looking to define a mural as: “A work of art or artistic expression that is generally applied, painted, or placed directly on the exterior of a structure.”
According to the city:
Murals can represent an opportunity for creative expression and can contribute to neighborhood character and identity. Staff recognizes that murals can also include distracting elements. Due to this, staff recommends any text, numbers, symbols, logos, or trademarks within murals to be subject to Section 9-200 – Sign regulations and limitations. This would allow a mural to occupy an entire wall with artistic elements, while still limiting the size of its text, numbers, symbols, logos, or trademarks.
These elements are regulated in the existing sign ordinance for similar reasons: to minimize visual distractions and help maintain a harmonious environment. Similar to the approval path available for other wall signs, staff proposes that murals that do not comply with the proposed size limits would also be eligible to request administrative Special Use Permit (SUP) approval for additional sign area up to two square feet for every one foot of wall width. Sign area that exceeds this amount would require a full hearing SUP.
Murals that comply with the proposed provisions would not be subject to sign ordinance regulations, including Section 9-300 which require signs within historic districts to obtain a certificate of appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review. After reviewing existing murals, staff found that most would comply with the proposed regulations. For the few that do not, staff recommends including an allowance for murals which were in existence as of April 26, 2025.
Section 9-200 is below.
Number and size limits: One permanent sign is permitted per multi-unit family property to be located at each of the property’s street frontages with a maximum size of 40 square feet for each sign if wall mounted or 32 square feet if free-standing.
