McMinnville Exploring Mural Permits

The City of McMinnville is considering implementing a no-fee mural permit.

If passed, the mural permit would require property owners to provide the proposed mural’s details in a permit application. Community Planner Katie Kemezis said three new murals have appeared downtown in the past two years. She said another is in the works.

“I think that our city is really blessed to have these murals,” Kemezis said. “They really bring our built environment to life in a lot of new and interesting ways, and it’s so much fun to see kids and families and teenagers and everyone taking pictures of themselves with the murals.”

Kemezis said the permit suggestion came to the Planning Commission as a response to multiple murals cropping up throughout the city. Some McMinnville Planning Commission Members expressed concern long term about murals going out of style or needing upkeep.

The McMinnville ordinance does not consider murals as signs, but more as painting a building, Kemezis said.

“But they are an expression of thought and they are something that is an in-between space between a commercial advertisement sign and just painting a building,” Kemezis said. “We just wanted to recognize that.”

The planning commission will consider the mural permit during the September meeting.