Agenda - Council - 07/08/2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Background: Action: Based on discussion TEMPORARY SIGNS IN THE PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY By: Grant Riemer, Public Works Street Supervisor This case has been in front of the Public Works Committee before and this is a continuation of that process. Due to the recent storms and with the elections coming up this fall staff felt this would be a good time to review our policy. Our current policy states signs shall be placed 15 feet behind the curb or edge of roadway, and outside of the vision triangle. The vision triangle is determined with two legs being along intersecting curb lines a distance of either 25 feet or 50 feet (depending on whether or not there is a Stop condition) from the intersection point and the third side connecting between these two points. Signs within these prohibited areas will be removed. Within the past year city staff was instructed to remove temporary signs from the public ROW, our designated" vision triangle," power poles, street signs etc.... To date staff has collected approximately 773 temporary signs. The two biggest contributors' would be contractors, with 364 signs and real estate companies at 258 signs. The recent storm damage brought numerous contractors to town looking for work. Staff . removed approximately 150 signs from the ROW following the storm. After talking to some of the contractors and giving them a hand out sheet on our sign policy, most were courteous and happy to comply with our standard. The most calls generated after the storm came from residents asking for their signs back. It seems once the contractor signs were removed the homeowners were besieged by new contractors trying to sign them up. A couple of residents saying they had up to 15 contractors a day knocking on their door. Because of the trouble this caused our residents staff has begun calling contractors informing them of our policy and asking them to move their signs out of the ROW. We are in the process of posting the information on the web page. The police department has asked staff from the community development and public works departments to join them on their cable program "Roll Call" to explain the policy and the difficulties signs in the ROW pose. The program is to be taped in early July. City staff will continue to try to educate people on this policy and do enforcement as necessary. Reviewed By: Director of Public Works /Principal City Engineer City Engineer PW: 06/17/08 CASE #