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The placement of temporary signs in the right-of-way
constitutes a violation of Virginia Code which is
enforceable by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
The County has entered into an agreement with VDOT whereby
County staff is authorized to enforce such sign violations
by pulling signs from the right-of-way (Attachment 1).
Over the last two years, Zoning staff has sporadically
removed signs from the right-of-way, but this occurs
infrequently now that the Zoning Inspector position has been
eliminated. The County’s Litter Control task force is also
charged with pulling such signs in conjunction with their
broader mission of removing litter from the right-of-way.
The Loudoun County model suggests another approach, the use
of citizen volunteers.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors adopted a pilot
program to train citizen volunteers to assist County zoning
staff in the removal of illegally posted signs from
right-of-way areas. The pilot program lasted for 2 months
and included 44 volunteers, resulting in approximately 8,300
signs being removed from public rights-of-way. The pilot
program was recently made permanent by the Board of
Supervisors. Based on the recent publicity surrounding the
Loudoun County program, Fauquier County staff has been
tasked to collect information on the program to determine if
it would be successful in Fauquier County. In general, the
placement of signs in public right-of-ways is undesirable
because of the safety hazard they pose to motorists whose
attention is diverted to the signs. In addition, the
placement of a large number of signs along right-of-ways
contributes to visual clutter in such areas and is generally
thought to be unappealing. Furthermore, the proliferation of
such signs increases the costs associated with highway
maintenance since local and state government resources are
required to remove them under traditional enforcement
programs.
The Loudoun County volunteer program is administered by the
Loudoun County Department of Building and Development.
Volunteers must agree to the Sign Collection Program
Guidelines (See Attachment 2) and the Building and
Development Department maintains the right to accept and
reject applicants. The guidelines set forth the basic
requirements of the program in that signs can only be
collected during daylight hours and only those signs located
5 feet from the edge of pavement are subject to removal.
Under no circumstances are signs located on private property
allowed to be removed and the guidelines require that
volunteers notify zoning enforcement staff in the event that
volunteers are unsure as to whether a particular sign is
eligible for removal. In those cases, the sign is inspected
through the County’s normal enforcement process and a notice
of violation is sent if the sign is in fact a violation. All
signs collected are sent to the landfill for disposal.
Although the Loudoun County program has been successful,
there have been some noted drawbacks. Several opponents of
the program have indicated that there is opportunity for
discrimination against particular types of businesses or
specific business owners, in that their signs were removed
while others were not. In addition, several realtors and
business owners have complained that poorly trained
volunteers are removing signs that are clearly located on
private property. In both instances, Loudoun staff
concluded that it appeared that the issues were directly
related to the character of the individuals that were
volunteering, as opposed to some flaw in the sign removal
program itself. |