In a departure from its long-time complacence over illegal
signs, the city recently fined a gun show promoter $4,600 for
illegally tacking more than 40 posters around town.
In a departure from its long-time complacence over illegal signs, the city recently fined a gun show promoter $4,600 for illegally tacking more than 40 posters around town. The move spurred complaints of selective and politically motivated enforcement, but city staff said it was just part of a new, “stepped up” effort.
Gilroy’s zoning laws bar “any off-site advertising signs” that are not on the same physical site as the business they are advertising. This includes those ubiquitous, rectangular, neon green, orange and red signs stapled to phone poles, fences and facades, often on properties lacking on-site supervision. The small, eye-grabbing signs advertise tattoo expos, gun shows, and reptile and bird exhibits, but they typically stay up after events and frustrate residents who have been complaining about the mess to Gilroy Code Enforcement Officer Scott Barron.
“We’ve been having trouble with these types of signs for a while. (The events) hire a contractor to come down here and put them up, but they don’t take them down,” he said. “Since the gun and reptile show and the businesses sponsoring them are not in Gilroy, I don’t see how (the Planning Department) would issue them a sign permit for any of their signs.”
To begin improving the city’s aesthetic, last March Barron sent a letter to Sallie Nordyke of TS Trade Shows, a company in the small town of Willows – southwest of Chico – that promotes the periodic gun show at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose. The letter asked Nordyke to remove her bright signs or face $100 fine for each one posted within the city limits. Within a week, the contractor Nordyke hired to put up the signs, Oakdale-based Kirk Briggs Signs, removed them and others like them.
Yet, three months later, TS Trade Shows held another gun show and 42 new signs popped up here. Barron sent Nordyke separate invoices for each sign. The bill totaled $4,600 due to the per-sign violation plus additional fees for violating city code after the March warning.
Within two hours of receiving the certified bills, an employee at Kirk Briggs called Barron and then came down to remove the signs – but it was too late to erase the fines, Barron said. Instead, he compromised with Nordyke to come up with a total fine of $1,200, payable in installments over a year, he said.
“(Nordyke) says we’re being anti-gun, but it doesn’t have anything to do with guns. It’s an issue of out-of-towners posting signs. My hope is in the long term they stop coming back, and so far, it seems they have,” said Barron, who does not own a gun.
Barron, whose son owns guns, dismissed any accusations of bias.
While the city used to just take down the signs, layoffs have left fewer employees at City Hall to do this task. Removing the signs and slapping advertisers on the wrist just won’t cut it anymore.
“We stepped up the pressure just this year,” he said.
As of Sunday, nearby Hollister had multiple fences and poles plastered with signs advertising the upcoming reptile show in San Jose and a past tattoo expo. In Gilroy, there were no signs immediately visible.
Neither Nordyke nor Kirk Briggs Signs returned multiple messages Monday, but at least one local gun advocate criticized the city for unfairly enforcing its sign laws. The Gilroy Garlic Festival had signs up for parking – though city code allows temporary signs for directional purposes, especially for nonprofits – and someone recently hung signs around town advertising a flea market downtown, so why pick on the gun show, Gilroyan Kelly Woodall wondered.
“It really hit home when I was at the gun show. This is just one more stab against Second Amendment rights,” Woodall said.
The handgun and shotgun owner chatted with Nordyke about her troubles at the San Jose gun show last month, he said.
“Whether you’re from out of town or from Gilroy shouldn’t make a difference (if you post signs). All that matters is if the city is enforcing all its regulations equally, or did they see a quick $4,600 to make here,” Woodall said.
Two months was “more than enough time” for Nordyke to heed Barron’s warning, though it seemed like a biased attack to begin with, Woodall acquiesced.
As for equally regulating the other signs throughout the city, Barron has 14 pages worth of rules to turn to. Chief among them is a prohibition against signs on any curbstone, lamppost, pole, hitching post, hydrant, bridge or tree on a public street or public property within Gilroy.
Even permitted signs can be too close to the curb or too big. They can obstruct pedestrians or the views of drivers, they can be placed illegally on landscape mounds, include balloons, or sit too far away from the business. Businesses can have a portable, non-electrical, 2.5-foot by 4-foot wood sign on the public sidewalk outside their store front – also known as “A-frame” signs that Barron said he has fined in the past – only if the business is open, the sign has insurance and pedestrians can walk freely, according to city code.
“All I’m asking is, please keep your signs out of our city. We have enough problems without them,” Barron said.
