Sign laws need better enforcement
Telling an enforcement agency to only ticket speeding drivers reported by other drivers, and ignore those observed speeding during routine patrols, wouldn’t make sense. And, of course, that’s not the case.
But when it comes to illegal signs in Sussex County, that is essentially what is happening. County employees say sign-ordinance violations are only addressed on a complaintdriven basis. Otherwise, it’s said, constables charged with enforcing the county’s ordinances are advised to ignore sign violations they see. In other words, it’s up to citizens to enforce the sign ordinances.
This ‘less government is best government’ approach has long held sway in Sussex. But if we’re going to have ordinances to govern signs - which ungoverned have quickly proliferated creating a visually polluting and dangerous blight - then a more common-sense approach to enforcement needs to be considered.
With a growing population and more businesses competing, sign pressure will only increase. If illegal signs are allowed to persist, others will follow suit and the problem will only grow. It’s particularly noticeable with electronic signs that can be distracting - and dangerous - in an area with lots of drivers unfamiliar to the area trying to take it all in.
Such signs are clearly designed to catch the driver’s eye. When they violate brightness intensity rules and rules limiting how frequently they can change images - no more than every eight seconds - they become even more obtrusive.
Yet we see them frequently. And even if a complaint is called in, it’s no guarantee action will be taken. Such is the case with a brightly flashing and quickly changing sign working for at least three weeks recently on the main entrance to Lewes, just outside city limits.
Our sign laws are plenty permissive to meet commercial needs. Without common sense enforcement of its own rules, Sussex County will be awash in illegal signs whose distracting advantages penalize those who play by the rules, overload drivers’ ability to pick out pertinent information, and tarnish the aesthetics of our commercial areas.
