The Great Sign Debate Rages on!

In March 2009, I brought you the news concerning the great sign debate in Los Angeles. Wednesday, March 18, 2009, a divided Los Angeles Planning Commission failed to overhaul the city's billboard law with some members saying a proposed sign ordinance grants too many exceptions to the outdoor advertising industry. The panel, which needed five votes to send a rewritten sign law to the City Council, deadlocked on a series of 4-3 votes. However, the Los Angeles Planning Commission re-voted Thursday, March 26, 2009 to recommend dramatically reworked restrictions on signs that would ban digital billboards and super graphics -- the vinyl signs stretched across the sides of buildings -- throughout most of the city. The commission voted 6 to 3 to forward the ordinance to the City Council.

The Great Sign Debate, for all intents and purposes, had ended. Well... then again...

As of February 22nd, 2010, Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich (who took office July 1 after promising during last year's election campaign that he would crack down on unpermitted billboards) launched a fresh assault against the outdoor advertising industry, announcing the filing of a lawsuit alleging that supergraphics were unlawfully installed on 12 buildings throughout the city.

The nuisance-abatement suit contends that multistory vinyl ads were placed illegally on the Sherman Oaks Galleria, the Howard Hughes Center in Westchester and other buildings in North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks and elsewhere.

The civil complaint filed Monday accuses outdoor advertising company World Wide Rush LLC and 26 associates, property owners and sign installers of putting up the massive posters in violation of a city council ban that aimed to stem the proliferation of supergraphics and digital billboards. The city's lawsuit names 27 defendants, including World Wide Rush, which already has a billboard case pending before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The company is seeking to strike down the city's ban on the installation of new supergraphics.

The complaint, which also alleges violations of California's Outdoor Advertising Act and other state laws and local ordinances, argues that supergraphic signs endanger the covered buildings' occupants, distract drivers and hurt the look of streets.

It seeks the signs' removal and damages that could total more than $10 million, as well an injunction prohibiting new signs from being installed.

Chief Assistant City Attorney Jeffrey Isaacs said Tuesday that the lawsuit, which lists 12 Los Angeles locations where illegal signs were allegedly installed, is part of his office's new strategy of aggressive sign law enforcement. Council members said they cast their votes for the blanket ban in hopes of heading off the types of legal challenges that bedeviled previous billboard regulations that carved out exceptions permitting some signs.

In one of those challenges, a federal judge agreed with an argument by World Wide Rush that the exceptions raised free speech concerns because they gave city officials too much leeway in deciding which signs to allow.

Officials are appealing that decision, which led to a contempt proceeding after officials issued citations against the company despite the permanent injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins in 2008 that protected 10 of the 12 locations named in this week's lawsuit. Isaacs said the latest lawsuit does not conflict with Collins' order because the supergraphics were installed after the city approved new ordinances governing outdoor advertising.

The city has been on the defensive for years as it has sought to regulate such advertisements, with an estimated 30 lawsuits challenging its sign laws and billboard inspection fees. Trutanich said he intends to seek fines of up to $5,000 for every day that an illegal supergraphic is on a building. In cases in which a sign is illegally placed next to a freeway, he also intends to seek a $10,000 fine, plus $100 for each day the sign is up. World Wide Rush urged the court to impose a $100,000 fine against the city, plus $10,000 for each day that Trutanich fails to drop the older case. The sign company also called for Collins to hold the city in criminal contempt and to order Trutanich, the L.A. City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa into federal custody.

Now now boys! Maybe what we need here is a time out? I know it worked well when my son got all puffed up and bent out of shape. Of course, he was younger then. These days he knows how to hold his breath and count to ten before losing it. Not that I'm knocking either view point. Really, I swear I'm not. But gentlemen, for the love of peace, grow up and stop hacking at each other like little boys! Federal custody? Seriously? Over SIGNS? OK... I don't see it. But hey, I'm just a writer. With that in mind, I will quietly exit stage right and leave you two to duke it out.

Gwynn~

Sign Ordinance Changes!

San Jose City Council to review proposed changes to city's sign ordinance! Not only San Jose either :-) We will be seeing changes in Towanda Borough, Pennsylvania as well!

On Tuesday, for the first time since 1992, the City Council will consider a comprehensive update of San Jose's sign ordinance, including so-called "supergraphic" signs, temporary signs on blank walls in downtown San Jose. The council also will review seven other sign modification recommendations to the ordinance made by the city's planning staff, which has sought the input of businesses and residents in several public meetings over the last year. The council also will consider whether to retain the city's existing billboard ban for both static and electronic/digital billboards; whether to allow freeway signs with a digital/electronic component for large shopping centers; and whether to modify rules for electronic/digital signs for large ground floor spaces in downtown San Jose, among other proposals.

To find out more about the ordinance changes in San Jose, you can contact Tracy Seipel at 408 275-0140 or e-mail: tseipel@mercurynews.com

One down, and one to go!

Towanda Borough, Pennsylvania now allows neon signs in store windows!
The Towanda Borough Council has amended its sign ordinance to allow internally-illuminated signs in showroom windows. However, the signs cannot flash and the words of the sign cannot "move" across the sign. Also, the signs cannot be more than 25 square feet, according to the amendment to the ordinance that was passed.

To find out more about the ordinance changes in Towanda Borough, Pennsylvania, you can contact James Loewenstein at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com


Thanks for reading! Gwynn~
Information for this article was taken from Mercury News and The Daily Review

Realtor Wars Caught on Camera!

I was perusing the recent blog posts for yesterday and today, and came across the piece below. As many people know, especially during election time, yard signs tend to grow legs and walk away, get torched, or vandalized in many different ways. Most of the time, there really isn't much that authorities can do to combat this type of behavior because they generally don't have evidence as to who the vandalizing party is. Art Mullen, of South Mills, North Carolina, decided to take extra measures and caught his vandal on camera...

A Fort Mill real estate agent ended up in handcuffs after he was allegedly caught on tape cutting down a competitor's business sign.

"Shows him vandalizing the sign, stomping down the sign, that's when I called the authorities," said realtor Art Mullen.

NewsChannel 36 cameras were there when deputies with the York County Sheriff's Office took real estate agent Daniel LaFranca Jr. into custody Monday afternoon. The deputies were serving a damage of property warrant.

"Were you vandalizing your competitor's signs?" we asked LaFranca as deputies escorted him into a squad car.

"Not at all," LaFranca responded.

However, Mullen says his hidden camera video solved a five-month mystery.

"I've had a lot of my signs go ahead getting cut up, stolen, vandalized and I never really knew who it was," Mullen said. "I was frustrated. So what I did is I had some friends and some colleagues, we set up video surveillance."

Mullen claims the surveillance video shows his former boss, LaFranca, using a box cutter to slash his sign.

"He signed a non-compete clause with my company," LaFranca told us of Mullen.

Mullen says he's done nothing wrong and has had hundreds of signs either stolen or damaged after he stopped working for LaFranca.

"We didn't leave in the best of terms," Mullen said. "I made a lot of money in that company."

LaFranca denies wrongdoing.

"That's not you on video?" we asked LaFranca.

"Not that I know of," he responded.

Mullen says it's the ugly side of business during struggling housing market.

"I think it's a sign of the times," said Mullen.

The York County Sheriff's Office told NewsChannel 36 LaFranca wouldn't face jail time, but if found guilty he could end up paying a fine.

Gwynn~

Original story by MARIO ROLDAN
NewsChannel 36 Posted: Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2009

Thinking Outside the Box

In the wonderful world of marketing it helps to think outside of the box. After all, just about everything you can conceive of has been tried in one form or another and to avoid the same old thing, we have to get creative. We have to take what we know works and figure out how to present it in a NEW way. This is a never ending battle and one of the reasons corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing strategies. While browsing the web and researching sign strategy, I ran across an article that nearly knocked me out of my seat. Not only was this "outside the box", it was bold, daring and (believe it or not) a community service.

Dan O'Connor, a real estate investor who spends his spare time developing cutting edge systems to help other real estate investors, decided to launch a fairly peculiar marketing strategy not too long ago. He termed this "Operation Bandit Sign Traffic". As everyone who is familiar with bandit signs (yard signs) knows, it has become illegal to place signs at most intersections. But what if the signs were placed at the intersections in a way that completely looped around the laws? Is there actually a way to do that without getting into trouble or fined? Obviously so. Mr. O'Connor jumped through the loops when he hired homeless people who were panhandling the intersections to hold his signs. Basically, he put the homeless people to work and gained an advertising advantage all in one surprising sweep. Not only that, but the media got involved when Mr. O'Connor called to inform them of his intention to employ the homeless as a community service project for the day.

It appears that Mr. O'Connor's bold strategy was a huge success. He was able to net $37,000 in profit in 10 days, attract 5 qualified tenant buyers, get his company name on peoples lips, gainfully employ a large population of homeless people in a day AND gain recognition through the media. Flabbergasted, I stared at the screen of my computer, blinked a few times to ensure my eyes were working properly, then silently congratulated his ability to think THAT far outside of the box. I can honestly say that, in all my years of reading and researching marketing ideas and strategies, I would never have dreamed of anything like this. Just goes to show what thinking outside of the box can accomplish!

If you are interested in reading more about "Operation Bandit Sign Traffic", click here.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Gwynn

Legal Issues

Previously, I posted regarding yard signs and their effectiveness. I also spoke about the different laws in different states regarding the placement of yard signs. I would like to expand on that for just a moment...

Zoning codes and laws regulating sign placement are typically developed and enforced by cities and counties, not by the state government. Most cities have sign ordinances that restrict the size and placement of signs on public and private property. The specifics of the rules and regulations vary by municipality and region. The sign shop you use will probably not be able to advise you of the rules for you city. To avoid warnings and fines you should familiarize your self with the sign ordinances in your area. For example, here is a summary of State of Texas House Bill 212 (HB212) .

Additional revisions to this proposed ordinance were made in response to HB 212, which was enacted during the last legislative session, effective September 1, 2003. The final language in HB 212:
1. Does not explicitly address public safety/aesthetic regulation of political signs.
2. Explicitly states that a city may not prohibit signs from being placed, unless it exceeds the limits described in Section (d) of the same bill. Subsection (d) provides that the limitation on municipal regulation doesn't apply to a sign that:
A. Has an effective area grater than 36 feet
B. Is more than eight feet high
C. Is illuminated or has any moving elements


HB 212 also states that a municipal charter provision or ordinance (for a sign that contains a primarily political message) may not prohibit
the sign from being placed but is silent when it comes to regulating signs with regard to reasonable time, and setback restrictions by ordinance.

Current ordinance puts reasonable time limits on the placement of political election signs (up to 30 days after the election).

Unfortunately, the specific language of your city's sign ordinance may not be easy to find. Sometimes the law is available on-line, but often it is only available in written form from the police department or city offices. Anyone interested in erecting a sign should check with the City Zoning Office to see if a permit is needed to ensure that the sign meets City code. something else to keep in mind is that these ordinances have been in a constant state of change since they were implemented so it is important to check back regulary.

Click here for local ordinances from American Legal
Click here for local ordinances from Municode.com

Here is a sample of sign ordinanence laws from around the U.S.

• Albuquerque NM


• Austin TX


• Dallas TX


• Frisco TX


• Pacifica CA


• Palm City FL
  

Information for this blog was provided (in exact content and verbage) from CompareSignPrices.com a site that not only keeps you up-to-date on sign information, but helps you find signs at super cheap prices. CompareSignsPrices.com sponsors SuperCheapSigns.com which happens to be one of the lowest priced sign companies you can find. I highly recommend both of these companies for anyone looking to price or buy signs.

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