Opponent of Developers’ Signs Gets Some Help From Friends
If there was anything that stuck in Bob Nortman’s craw, it was those signs.
Lining the roadways along the pristine fields and meadows near Nortman’s home in Olivenhain, the endless rows of placards always blared the same message: another bushel full of homes for sale, another housing tract on the auction block.
Development, development and more development.
To Nortman, the roadside real estate signs were nothing more than visual blight, a blemish tainting the rustic beauty of Olivenhain, a bucolic community of homes and horse farms nestled among the rolling hills on the eastern edge of Encinitas. Worse yet, Nortman said, most of the 4-by-8-foot billboards and smaller real estate signs were illegal, built without proper permits or set up in public right of ways.
Taking Matter in Own Hands
A few years ago, Nortman set out on a crusade against the signs. He began complaining to local lawmakers. Eager to document the atrocities, he snapped photos of crews planting the signs.
He wrote letters to the editor of the local newspaper and complained about his pet peeve at public meetings.
And in the process, Nortman was sued.
It seems that some residents of the community, ticked off by the illegal signs and the development boom they represented, had decided to take matters into their own hands and began tearing the things down. When the owner of a firm particularly hard hit decided it was time to put a stop to the antics of these sign vigilantes, he targeted Bob Nortman.
The company’s owner, Al Wylie, slapped Nortman with a $1.6-million lawsuit in 1985, alleging that he was responsible for the loss of $20,000 in signs that had been uprooted. Later, Wylie added Tom Buckel, another Olivenhain resident and noted sign hater, to the lawsuit.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Nortman and Buckel became something of folk heroes in these parts, where the only things many locals hate more than the illegal roadside signs are the housing tracts they herald.
Residents rallied round them, holding garage sales to raise money for their legal defense fund and forming a group called “Friends Against Illegal Signs” to lend moral support to the cause.
“Bob was picked on because he had been so effective in fighting against the illegal signs,” recalls Encinitas Mayor Marjorie Gaines, herself a resident of Olivenhain and a staunch opponent of illegal signs. “They were hoping to neutralize his effective action by hauling him into court and costing him money. They were trying to create a chilling atmosphere.”
If that was the tactic, it didn’t work.
Signs Hard to Find
Today, the real estate signs are hard to find around Olivenhain and other sections of Encinitas. Part of the credit must be given to city leaders, who slapped a moratorium on the signs soon after the municipality was incorporated a year ago. Now the city has formed a committee to draw up laws regulating the roadside signs. Among the members is--you guessed it--Bob Nortman.
Gaines and other city officials, however, said problems with signs began to diminish well before the city incorporated. In particular, she credited the efforts of the sign vigilantes and, of course, Nortman.
While Buckel insisted that he was never among the residents who sabotaged the developer signs, Nortman refused at the advice of his attorney to say one way or another whether he took part in the sign vigilantism.
What Nortman certainly did help do was make life miserable for lots of sign companies. After repeated tries, Nortman and other residents persuaded county officials to approve tougher laws regulating the mini-billboards. In addition, they began pushing the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to crack down on the illegal signs.
The result was, as Nortman dubbed it, “The Great Chainsaw Massacre.” At the request of sheriff’s deputies, a county public works crew in 1985 took down nearly three dozen plywood billboards, the bread-and-butter advertising gimmick of the development community, which had been erected in the public right of way.
Around the same time, the sign vigilantes were kicking into full throttle. And what had started as a minor skirmish soon escalated into all-out war.
When the sign companies began cementing and chaining the billboards in place, the vigilantes armed themselves with bolt cutters and saws. When the companies sprayed a clear protective coat on the placards to guard against graffiti, the vigilantes countered by spreading tar on them.
“It became sort of a contest between the sign companies’ ingenuity and the determination and ingenuity of the local vigilantes,” Gaines said.
Victims of Uprising
Like his peers, Wylie was irked by the ongoing assault. At one point, he promised in a local newspaper to financially “castrate” anyone he found vandalizing his signs. Then he filed the lawsuit against Nortman.
Gaines and other community members responded to news of the legal action by organizing a garage sale in September, 1985, raising about $1,700 to help defray Nortman’s court costs.
But the fete also prompted problems. Soon after, Wylie’s attorney dragged in Gaines and six other garage sale organizers to give depositions on the case. In addition, the lawyer argued--unsuccessfully--that a list of donors who had contributed to the sale should be turned over.
“They thought everyone was in collusion against them,” Nortman said.
Gaines agreed, suggesting that there never was an organized band of vigilantes; rather, the signs were victims of an uprising of the masses:
“For years people tried to get the county to do something about the signs, but the answers were so weak that I think people became disillusioned. I believe people began tearing them down in frustration. I’ve had numerous times myself where I felt like going out and doing that, so I don’t think it was an organized group of people at all.”
When Buckel was named as part of the lawsuit about a year ago, the community again pitched in. In March, yet another garage sale was held, this time raising $1,800. A banner was hung outside the sale saying, “Wylie Spies Welcome. Please Bring Money!”
“Those illegal roadside signs got a lot of people angry,” Nortman said. “Developers take advantage of people on the growth issue, then they go and grind your nose in it by putting up all these ugly signs.”
Case’s Direction Up in Air
Where the legal case against Nortman and Buckel will go now is still up in the air. As yet, Wylie has not pushed for a court date. Wylie did not return a reporter’s phone calls, and his attorney refused to talk. Nortman and the others said Wylie’s firm is having financial difficulties and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s strictly harassment and a fishing expedition,” Buckel said. “I don’t think they have proof of anything.”
In the meantime, Nortman and other members of the Encinitas sign committee are crafting rules that they hope will keep the developer placards from proliferating once again.
The key element of the program, which will likely go before the City Council next month, is a plan to establish kiosks at strategic street corners pointing the way to new housing projects.
A similar program is in use in Carlsbad and Poway.
“It should help,” Nortman said. “At one time a few years ago, I counted 338 signs in the Encinitas area from 18 different developments. They were really ugly, plus being illegal. They were messing up the whole community.”
