Pierce County Sign Problem: Bad For Sellers, Real Estate, Environment

I read today in The News Tribune Blog that Pierce County in Washington is basically going around enforcing an old law which has to do with city right of way and signs.  According to the blog, they are collecting all signs in the right of way and throwing them in the dump.

Here is part of the blog I read by Devona Wells:

"Since Feb. 15, county workers have collected and taken to the dump 1,320 signs, said Bruce Wagner, the county's road operations division manger. Nearly half were real-estate related, he said."

This interesting blog went on to talk about how the city right away isn't really clearly defined in most cases, so it is not only hard to follow the law, it is hard to enforce.  Apparently workers who can not determine if a sign is in the right of way or not are instructed to just leave it. 

According to the blog, the county tried holding on to the signs to allow owners to pick them up, but found it to be inconvenient and decided to take them to the landfill after looking at recycling costs. 

My opinion - This is ridiculous!  This is bad for sellers who need people to see that their house is for sale and really bad timing on the county's part if you ask me.  We all put our signs in the right of way!  If you are like me, you are careful to make sure that the sign is not blocking vision for drivers, but if we had to put the signs out of the right of way, they would look ridiculous and be in the middle of the yard in some cases.

THROWING THEM AWAY?????  That is just stupid!  My signs are all wood and I know that an artist group would love to get a hold of them and paint to their hearts content if recycling is too expensive, but please please please do not fill the landfill with things that still have a useful life.  If you are going to have a law and enforce it, you have to be able to enforce it properly and in this day and age to fill the landfill with perfectly good materials is ridiculous.  Instead, charge a rescue fee like the City of Lake Forest Park used to do in my early days of real estate.  Or go with a sign permit system.  There are about ten better ways to do it.

Ultimately, this is bad for the county, too - Houses still depend on signs to sell in most cases - The real estate market needs the signs and the county needs the real estate market.