All Signs Point To Tougher Enforcement Code Enforcement Cops Crack Down On Illegal Signs

FOR THE RECORD, July 8, 1995: The song “Signs” was sung by the Five Man Electric Band. The band’s name was incorrect in a Wednesday story that included lyrics from the song.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

Blocking up the scenery, breaking my mind.

Do this, don’t do that. Can’t you read the signs?

The One Man Electrical Band easily could have had Spokane in mind when it sang those words back in the early ‘70s.

Or so says Spokane’s code enforcement department, which recently took up hot pursuit of illegal signs that for years have blotted the landscape but gone unregulated.

It’s a crackdown sanctioned by the City Council - and it’s being taken very seriously by those in charge.

“People are going to say to me, ‘I’ve had that sign for 15 years,”’ says Terry Clegg, assistant code enforcement director. “But I’ve been given my marching orders.”

Scott Emerson, a city code cop, puts it this way: “This is a city of signs. You’ll see signs to paint your house, transfer your film … There’s just thousands of them.”

On a recent sunny Spokane day, Clegg is out and about with Emerson. Their task? Posting a “48-hour impound notice” on a reader board that sits on the southwest corner of 29th and Grand.

The notice states the sign’s owner has two days to remove the sign or the city will do it. If the city has to haul it away, the owner can expect to pay a $1 a day impound charge plus a pickup fee. If the sign’s not collected by month’s end, “we’ll pulverize ‘em,” says Clegg.

Such a notice comes only after someone has ignored an initial citation ordering the sign’s removal.

As Emerson tapes up the notice, Don Budig marches out of his Exxon station toward his reader board that advertises special prices on hot dogs, iced granitas and Keystone beer.

“Whose name goes on the lawsuit?” he asks. “I’m going to be injured if this sign is removed… This is business. This is not a game.”

Clegg and Emerson work quickly to defuse the situation, explaining to Budig that while the sign always has been illegal, the city only recently took enforcement seriously.

“A lot of signs haven’t been enforced,” says Clegg. “We haven’t had the staff.”

Budig says the sign has been there since the late ‘70s. He doesn’t like it. In fact, he thinks it’s ugly. But, he says, “I have to have a way to communicate what I have for sale. I can’t use ESP or anything.”

Budig relaxes as Clegg explains that a different sign might be allowed but that must be negotiated through the city’s Planning Department.

For now, the sign must be moved away from the “clear view triangle” - the triangular area at the intersection of two streets that a driver must be able to see through to make a right turn.

A reluctant Budig agrees to move the sign the next day, which he does.

“You’re not the only one who’s going to be complaining,” Clegg tells Budig. “We’re going to be enforcing signs more than ever before.”

Clegg says he probably wouldn’t have stopped at Budig’s station if someone hadn’t complained about the sign blocking a driver’s view.

His department gets hundreds of such complaints each year. Until three years ago, code enforcement fell under the domain of the planning and building departments. It was short-staffed. It didn’t have its own budget.

Now, Clegg says, the department stands alone with 10 enforcement officers and seven cleanup workers. It’s even got a $1.7 million budget.

“We have money. We have cars. We have qualified people,” says Clegg.

For the first few years, the department spent most of its time playing catch-up with serious violations - vacant lots filled with rusty cars, homes piled with trash. Officers concerned themselves with an illegal sign only when it posed a danger to “life and limb.”

Now, the department’s caught up and has a system in place. Officers are assigned to certain areas of town, and they’ll be able to follow through on the numerous sign complaints.

“Now, we’re focusing on it,” says Clegg. “We’re organized and we’re ready.”

It’s a good thing, says Emerson. “People are getting fed up, and we have a huge amount of complaints.”

Illegal signs are everywhere, they say. They include real estate signs advertising a home two blocks away and signs on Ruby Street pointing toward businesses on Division. They’re signs blocking sidewalks and advertising home businesses from a post in the front yard.

If a sign poses a danger to a pedestrian or driver and someone complains, the city could be liable if someone gets hurt, Clegg says.

“The responsibility goes from their shoulders to our shoulders,” he says.

Holly Ann O’Connell says about a month ago she removed her A-frame sandwich board sign after a notice from the city. It had stood on the sidewalk in front of her Garland health food store since it opened two years ago.

Like Budig, she says the sign is an integral part of her business.

“In fact, immediately after I removed it, a woman came in the store and said ‘I couldn’t see your place. I was looking for the sign.’

“Talk about rubbing salt in the wound,” says O’Connell.

Like Budig, her chief complaint is the sudden enforcement of laws that have been in place for years.

“Before we start running around enforcing old laws, shouldn’t we consider whether those laws are appropriate?” O’Connell wonders.

Emerson admits the outdated zoning code has an inflexible sign code, but a plan two years ago to update the code was shot down by the City Council.

“The current code is pretty black and white,” he says. “No A-frame signs, no deviations. Other than telling them to remove them, we can’t give them any options.”

So I got me a pen and a paper, and I made up my own little sign.

I said “Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me. I’m alive and doing fine.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SIGNS OF TROUBLE Signs that should be removed include: Movable, temporary signs like “A” frame signs. Signs on sidewalks or roads that block public right of way. Off-premise signs - business signs located on someone else’s property. Unsafe, damaged or poorly maintained signs. Home occupation signs that aren’t flat against the house. Signs that are located in the traffic clear view triangle - basically, a sign located in the right corner of an intersection that blocks a driver’s view around that corner.