The Jeffersonville City Council gave preliminary approval to ordinances designed to regulate sign postings, sidewalk obstructions and advertising benches.

The new regulations — broken out into nine separate ordinances at the request of the council — were unanimously approved.

Attorney Larry Wilder, who presented the ordinances during a Monday night meeting, said he believes the bench advertisements ordinance would attract the most attention.

Because commercial speech is constitutionally protected, the council cannot ban it outright, he said. It can, however, regulate the time, place and manner of the commercial speech.

Under the new ordinance, bench billboards can only be placed next to the city’s benches, Wilder explained. The ordinance allows for only one bench to be placed beside each city bench. They have to be the same size, color and construction as the city’s benches. And the advertisement can be no larger than the area where the words “city of Jeffersonville” appears on the city’s benches.

The city uses green, metal, lattice-style benches. Therefore, advertising benches would have to match that theme.

“You’re creating consistency” with color and design, Wilder said.

Additionally, he noted, it would makes the city safer, because benches could not be placed in areas that obstruct intersections. The bench ordinance would not go into effect until 2011.

“It gives everybody a year to get in position to comply with the law,” he said.

The other ordinances regulated the posting of signs on utility poles, alleys and other public places. They also regulate retail signs and merchandise sales on sidewalks.

Free-standing sandwich boards, used by many downtown businesses, are permitted, as are newsstands and mailboxes.

By breaking the regulations out into separate ordinances, the council can look at each issue individually, Wilder said.

Council members commented favorably on the new regulations.

“I think those type of ordinances are long overdue because they deal with cleaning up the city,” said Councilman Nathan Samuel. “Hopefully, within a year, we’ll be able to see a much different, cleaner Jeff.”

“I just urge enforcement of those codes,” Councilman Ed Zastawny added.

The ordinances will each need two more readings before they’re final. The council plans to hold a public comment period at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Jeffersonville City Hall.

In other business

• The council unanimously approved the final reading of an about $52 million sewer-bond ordinance. The bond sale will fund numerous sewer system improvements — including a north-end sewer plant — purposed to correct sewer-overflow problems.

The city recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pledging to correct the overflows, which constitute a violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act.

A sewer rate increase — which would bring the average monthly bill from $24 per month to about $73 per month over time — would repay the bonds. The rate ordinance is expected to be voted on for the final time at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21.

• An ordinance that bans registered sex offenders from entering city parks was passed on its final reading. The ordinance, unanimously supported, has been the subject of legal controversy during the last few years.

It was first introduced in 2006, but was challenged with the help of the Indiana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. Monday’s legislation removed an exemption process labeled as overly burdensome by the Indiana Court of Appeals following a lawsuit by a man wanting to enter city parks to watch his son play sports.