After a viewer e-mail, Pronews Seven looked into the regulations regarding garage sale signs
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Recently a viewer e-mailed Pronews Seven a question regarding garage sale signs, regulations, and enforcement. We caught up with Amarillo's city attorney to find out some answers.
Turns out, according to the state transportation code, any unauthorized signs in the right of way are illegal, and are listed as a class C misdemeanor or what amounts to a traffic ticket.
"General law applies to those signs, it is against the law to place any signs in the public right of way that is not an official government sign, so whether it's a political sign, garage sale sign, a lost dog sign, those should not be in the city right of way, they should be on private property with the permission of the property owner," said Marcus Norris, Amarillo's city attorney.
The right of way is pretty much defined as the area from the street to the utility pole to about a foot beyond the pole. Utility poles are private property of the utility companies and it's actually considered trespassing if you place a sign on those poles.
The city's building safety department can remove the signs along with utility company representatives. Norris admitted when it comes to enforcement the city has other priorities and most people are good about taking the signs down.
An interesting side note, the city of Pampa has announced they are about to step up enforcement of that law.
If you have a garage sale or lost dog be careful how you promote or look for them because you might just break the law.
We hope this provided some insight into the signs issue, and an often overlooked law. If you have questions you would like Pronews Seven to look into, e-mail us at pronews7@kvii.com.
