Posting signs can be illegal

Concert promoter gets arrested and fined $4000 for putting up posters to advertise his concert on telephone poles. What’s the lesson to be learned? Check local laws and ordinances before plastering your event posters and flyers on telephone poles. With most of them containing a phone number, an email, or website for more information, it is extremely easy to find the source of distribution or promoter.

Here is an excerpt from the city of Seattle’s ordinance on the posting of signs and billboards:

“WHEREAS, signs contribute to traffic hazards and visual blight and it
has been the City’s policy to ban all signs, except as allowed inSeattle Municipal Code chapter 23.55, the Sign Code, and Title 11, the Traffic Code; and

WHEREAS, signs posted on utility poles, lamp poles and traffic control
devices may additionally contribute to traffic hazards, including
hazards to pedestrians and bicyclists, due to both the proximity of
these sites to sidewalks and streets and the distraction from traffic
safety and control messages that are posted on the same poles; and

WHEREAS, allowing signs to be posted on utility poles, lamp poles and
traffic control devices may allow signs in zones where they are
currently prohibited or may result in more signs being displayed than
allowed under current zoning, which contributes to visual blight
and/or traffic hazards; and

WHEREAS, outdated signs, torn signs and litter can contribute to
visual blight; ”

In this case it is the duty of the person responsible for the posting to pay for the cost of the city to remove them. It states that “Costs include, but are not limited to, direct labor, material and equipment costs, as well as department and general City overhead costs attributable to the removal of signs and to identifying the responsible person or persons and collecting from them the costs of removal.”

Here’s the story of a promoter in Canada who was fined, despite the fact that there were many different posters, advertising different shows, on the same telephone poles. View video.