Call it a sign of the times.

Concerned about distracted drivers, the Champlin City Council voted Monday to restrict use of human sign walkers and define them in the city code. Sign walkers are workers who move about near busy intersections carrying -- and sometimes waving, bobbing or spinning -- placards advertising nearby businesses.

The council voted to require these workers to stay on private property. Signs can't be waved, and they must be 10 square feet or less. The code amendment takes effect in September.

"Our bottom-line concern is with them being in the right-of-way and being overly distracting to drivers," said City Planner Scott Schulte, adding that he's received complaints about sign walkers using medians. "They literally are out there within feet of vehicles, and some of those vehicles are going 60 miles per hour."

That is the case for many vehicles near the city's main commercial strip, just off Hwy. 169.

Schulte studied regulations elsewhere but didn't find much guidance; other cities seem to tolerate sign walkers or have wrapped their regulation in existing codes. Champlin city code already bans stationary, temporary off-premises signs and banners, but the language wasn't specific enough to regulate sign walkers, Schulte said.

The new ordinance creates a definition of "human signs" as those held or attached to a person for advertising, or a worker costumed "for the purpose of advertising or drawing attention to a business, commodity, service or product."

In addition to rules on where and when the sign walkers can be used, the amended ordinance would require business owners to register with a $120 temporary sign permit, $100 of which would be refunded to businesses that are in compliance with the other requirements.

Champlin officials checked with the city's attorney to see whether regulating the signs would pose a threat to businesses' First Amendment rights of free speech. They were advised that it would not because the ordinance would not be regulating the signs' content.

Excel Pawn and Jewelry is one Champlin company that uses sign walkers as a part of its marketing strategy. Co-owner Mark Pearson and his partners bought the business about a year ago and imported the practice, one they've used successfully at their other locations in St. Louis Park, Shakopee and Maplewood.

The company employs sign walkers about five hours a day for four or five days a week, weather permitting, to work along 114th Avenue N., to the east of Hwy. 169. It's a valuable tool, Pearson said, to alert potential customers to special deals, like a shipment of rods and reels the business recently received, or promotions, like a recent one offering free pop to get customers in the door.

"It would be a lot of economic harm to get rid of it because some people don't like it," he said, adding that the city's regulations on exterior signs and electronic signs already hamper his ability to draw customers off the main drag.

He's open to limiting use to so many days a week or month, but sign walkers already are limited by weather, since they don't work in rain or extreme heat or cold, he said. "I understand their concerns," he said. "I think they think it junks up the city, but it's a highly effective form of advertising, and the more business you get, the more tax revenue you get."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409