Yard Sign Debate

In the past week, I've seen much debate in the newspapers about problems with yard signs over in Glen Carbon. Specifically, the debate is centered around the placing of yard signs in the "right-of-ways," which is the area that is often between the sidewalk and the road, or perhaps around a major street or stop sign.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports: "Glen Carbon, like most communities, has an ordinance that prohibits private signs being placed in public rights of way. But usually those rules aren't enforced at election time."

I thought I'd weigh in on the issue by letting the people of Troy know that, as a voter, I generally dislike the placing of signs in right-of-ways. Many times, signs can disrupt the view of traffic in and around intersections, making the use of right-of-ways for this purpose potentially unsafe.

Plus, I strongly feel that you should get PERMISSION from a property owner for putting a sign on their property. This means, for right-of-ways, you would need to get permission from the city or the state. Obviously, this isn't feasible or fair, so the practice of signs in the right-of-way should be discouraged.

I enjoyed the News-Democrat's editorial take: "We hope that other communities in the metro-east will follow Glen Carbon's lead and enforce their sign ordinances. Doing so isn't taking away the right of political speech. Candidates and their supporters can still put up all the signs they please on private property with the owners' permission.

However, it shouldn't take the threat of enforcement action to convince candidates to remove signs from rights of way. If private businesses can't set up their signs, candidates shouldn't, either. Candidates might actually gain some votes if they showed they believe the rules apply to them, also."

I wholeheartedly agree. While I'm unsure if Troy has a right-of-way ordinance (I'm going to check this week and report back), I wanted everyone to know that I'm working very hard to make sure my signs avoid the right-of-ways, and are only placed in people's yards. I have strived to seek out the permission of property owners for 100% of my sign locations. If you feel one of my signs has crossed into a right-of-way boundary, or has been improperly placed by myself or one of my volunteers, please e-mail me to have the issue quickly resolved.

Candidates ask the community to bear a great amount by having "political speech" color the city's landscape for the month before an election. Thank you for that opportunity.