By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
April 11, 2012

Lugging a tub full of about 50 signs, Michael Stringer walked to the front of the room.

“This is just ten weeks worth of signs in Historic Northeast,” he told the city’s Neighborhoods and Healthy Communities Committee April 4.

All of the signs were illegally posted in the city’s rights-of-way and Stringer, along with other Historic Northeast residents, are sick of the signs.

“Signs are a major nuisance in our neighborhood,” Indian Mound President Katie Greer testified.

“It certainly detracts from our city,” said Maria King, chairman of the Scarritt Renaissance Codes Committee.

Stringer, who’s earned the nickname “The Sign Bandit” for removing unwanted signs in public rights-of-way, said he supports the city’s ordinance proposal to recognize those signs as a nuisance and issue fines for illegally posted signs.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the signs are from companies that don’t have a real presence here that are advertising things like get rich quick schemes, super vitamin pills and things like that,” Committee member Scott Taylor said. “They’re putting them up on all street corners and it really clutters up the neighborhoods. We’ve gotten a lot of calls about it.”

Taylor said the proposed ordinance would “create some teeth” for an already existing city ordinance. Declaring unauthorized signs located in rights-of-way and on public property as a nuisance would allow the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services to investigate the signs’ owner and turn the case over to Municipal Court. Exempt signs would include those posted by a government entity, public utility signs, transit company signs and safety signs. Citizens could remove unauthorized signs and dispose of them or turn the signs in to the Neighborhood and Community Services Department for further prosecution.

Owners of the sign(s) would be notified and given 24 hours to remove the sign. If the sign wasn’t removed within 24 hours, a fine of $20 would be issued. Subsequent violations would result in fines of $20 to $1,000 per sign.

Yolanda Young, youth and family outreach specialist with the Ivanhoe neighborhood, said the neighborhood “fully supports” the proposed ordinance.

As the signs weather, she said, they detract from the neighborhood and become a traffic hazard by distracting drivers and obstructing views.

“We’ve done a lot to try to clean up our neighborhood and we certainly don’t need anymore of these kinds of things that contribute to the demise, the blight and the unsightliness of Ivanhoe,” she said.

Following the public testimony, committee members voted to pass the ordinance out of committee and submit it to the city council.

CITY-WIDE SIGN SWEEP:

Last fall, the city conducted a sign sweep and picked up more than 3,000 illegal signs. This year’s sign sweep will be held Tuesday, April 17. During the day, city staff will remove illegal signs in public rights-of-way throughout the city. Neighborhood residents are also encouraged to participate by removing commercial and political signs from public rights-of-way.
Each resident may request up to five blue trash bags which are available at three locations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday:
•Northland Neighborhoods Inc., 3015 Vivion Rd.
•Kansas City’s Neighborhood Preservation Division, 4900 Swope Parkway, first floor
•Trailside Center, 9901 Holmes Rd.
Residents can dispose of the illegal signs by placing them in the blue bags and setting out the bags on trash day. Solid waste will pick up the bags at no additional charge. Blue bags that contain items other than signs will receive violation stickers.