Campaign signs in Norfolk

2007 General Assemby races, Local, Norfolk, Politics 1 Minute

orfdem made mention of the sign ordinance in Norfolk:

Campaigns [signs] are not supposed to be posted until 90 days before an election.

I understood that to be the case as well. And seeing Rerras signs pop up in my neighborhood over the past few weeks, I wondered how they were getting around the rule. One such sign is even in the yard of a neighbor of mine who has been trained by the City and certified as a sign removal person.

So I decided to look it up in the code. Chapter 16 deals with signs. Section 16-6.16 specifically deals with the display period and removal of temporary signs. For political signs, it says the display period is the “Duration of Campaign (starting on date named person files for candidacy)” with removal required three days after election day. It appears that the sign ordinance (Ord. No. 42,260) was revised on 5-9-06.

Now, I went back and reviewed the Council agenda for 5-9-06 and can’t find a specific reference to this change being considered, unless it was in the agenda item PH-3, which says “PUBLIC HEARING scheduled this day pursuant to action of the Council on April 4, 2006, under the State law, public notice having been inserted in the local press by the City Clerk on the application of the City Planning Commission to amend certain sections and tables of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Norfolk, 1992, so as to make adjustments and corrections.” (Such a descriptive title!)

Anyway – it appears that the sign ordinance has changed.

Let the sign wars begin šŸ™‚

Published

4 thoughts on “Campaign signs in Norfolk”

  1. Thanks Vivian for clarification. I am certified as well to remove signs. In the class, which I attended after May 9, 2006, there was no mention of the code change. In fact, they still talked about the 90 day rule. I guess no one from the city could even tell the trainers. I even called code enforcement a few weeks back to complain about the signs and they said they would take care of it. I guess they found out about the change then as well. What a shame that the sign war can begin that early.

  2. In Farmville, it is 30 days beforehand.

    I want to know why, if signs in the rights-of-way are illegal, and the SBE harps on that fact when a candidate signs up, that everyone else can put signs in the right of way.

    There is also very uneven enforcement of it depending on where you live. Hence, the medians full of signs in urban areas, and the signs, all on private property (for the most part) in the rural areas.

    I would just as soon not see any more real estate, ‘we buy houses’ or other signs in the right of way. If it is good enough for politics, it is good enough for everyone. After all, I think free speech doesn’t include the right to advertise just anything in the ROW.

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