MONTEREY — Monterey political candidates take note: No longer will you be able to stick signs in the ground on city property.
The City Council adopted the amended ordinance at its meeting Tuesday.
It’s not just political signs, but all signs that are placed on the public’s property will suffer scrutiny by the city’s code enforcement department. Of course there are exceptions, most notably the prohibition doesn’t apply to the use of city property for people who have a special event permit, license agreement, concession or a lease.
City Councilman Tyller Williamson, who voted for the amended ordinance, said the origin had an environmental element.
“If we are going to represent policies that show a need to protect the environment, then we needed to move on the sign ordinance.”
The new ordinance passed the council on Tuesday by a 4-1 vote with Councilman Ed Smith dissenting. Smith argues that signs are a part of every campaign and that they provide information about candidates, including websites where voters could learn more.
“The public has a right to know who’s running,” Smith said.
He also argues that the new sign policy favors incumbents. New people running for office may not have the number of private property owners that incumbents have — simply because the incumbent has the advantage of engaging with more people, Smith said.
“(The ordinance) was more important to councilmembers than the public,” he said about a scant show of people at the Oct. 1 council meeting where the ordinance was first introduced. “It’s not like we had a plethora of people complaining. I would have supported an ordinance that banned signs in problem areas of the city, but there’s no evidence that signs have been any problem.”
While there’s virtually no limit to the number of signs placed on private property, the idea is for the city to cut down on the amount of waste that’s generated from signs after they are taken down on its property. And it’s not a few signs that are the problem.
Williamson noted that there were two recent candidates who put up more than 100 signs each.
The problem with signs has been building. The city passed an ordinance in 2014 that allowed “private party temporary signs” on city property with some restrictions.
“Since the enactment of that ordinance, there has been a proliferation of clutter, resulting in visual blight, and complaints by residents,” wrote Monterey City Attorney Christine Davi in a council report.
In addition to the environmental damage caused by the signs, the ones advocating a candidate or a policy planted on city property could be misconstrued as having a city of Monterey endorsement.
The city stopped short of addressing signs on private land because it more than likely would violate First Amendment protections. Cities in the past have tried to regulate signs on private property by categorizing them as “political signs” or “campaign signs” or “election oriented signs.” But the U.S. Supreme Court has been clear in invalidating nearly all city ordinances that attempt to regulate speech on private property.
The city provided two opportunities to garner public input, once on Oct. 1 and again on Tuesday. The ordinance will take effect on Nov. 14.
