Writing’s on the Wall for Illegal Signs in County

Prodded by residents unable to see stop signs amid a multitude of “for sale” signs, county workers have seized 1,125 notices of garage sales, lost dogs and real estate developments in south Orange County.

From Lake Forest Drive in El Toro to Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel, two inspectors from the county’s Environmental Management Agency spent last weekend tearing down and uprooting signs posted illegally on county right-of-ways, Bill Reiter, the agency’s public works operations manager, said Tuesday.

“We’re doing this for two reasons,” Reiter said. “One, because many of the citizens in the area are quite upset with this ‘sign blight,’ if you will. Also, it creates safety problems. . . . You can take away the visibility of drivers, not being able to see stop signs, cars turning in front of them.”

Reiter said the agency had received calls from the offices of Supervisors Bruce Nestande and Thomas F. Riley about residents’ complaints.

John Stevens, an aide to Riley, said the proliferation of signs in unincorporated areas “fluctuates with the building activity, obviously. When building activity is up and new sales complexes are open for business, builders are interested in directing customers to their complexes.”

Stevens said the county told the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County to inform its members that posting signs on county right-of-ways is illegal and asked that the Sheriff’s Department have deputies cite anyone caught doing it.

Reiter said owners of seized signs can retrieve them Thursday between noon and 3 p.m. at an EMA storage lot on Portola Parkway in El Toro. “We’ve had a few calls” from people wondering where their signs went, Reiter said, but “as to how many people show up (Thursday), it may be one, it may be 20.”

He said it cost an estimated $1,200 to send inspectors and a truck to remove the signs from median strips and curbs on Lake Forest Drive, Marguerite and Crown Valley parkways and Trabuco, El Toro and La Paz roads, in El Toro, Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo.

“We’re going to do the same streets over again this weekend and see . . . if we’ve made any impression on these people who are putting encroachments into the right-of-way,” Reiter said.