There is an important change in the City’s Sign Ordinance you should know is taking place in the City of Opelika beginning February 1, 2010.

City’s Sign Ordinance now has “teeth” to it. 

The City of Opelika has had a sign ordinance in place for many years now, prohibiting signage along city right of ways (ROW) and on utility poles.  The reason for this ordinance is two-fold: 

• signs in the ROW make our roadways “unsightly” and have the potential of distracting motorists from paying attention to traffic as they should.
• signage nailed to city utility poles present potential dangerous conditions for linemen restoring power in inclement weather, and causes us to have to replace utility poles more quickly than we would normally have to. 

 Over the past five years the city has had several information campaigns to get the word out to the Opelika public on this important ordinance.  And since he was elected in 2004, Mayor Gary Fuller has had ongoing orders for city workers to remove signs from the ROWs and utility poles whenever they were out along the streets.  For awhile each time, after each campaign, things have gotten better.  People complied with the ordinance.  Unfortunately, after a couple of months, “old habits” returned resulting in another influx of signs on city right of ways and utility poles. Since more than 5,000 signs have been removed by city employees since June of 2009, Mayor Fuller and the City Administration have decided “enough is enough”! 

Therefore, on December 15^th, 2009 the City administration brought an amendment to the sign ordinance before the City Council – and they approved it – which gives the City of Opelika “teeth” to the enforcement of the ordinance banning signage from city right of ways and utility poles.  The new ordinance will give the city the authority to issue a maximum fine of up to $250 plus court costs if a citizen or business is caught placing signs in the public right of way or on utility poles. 

As Mayor Fuller puts it, “We live in a beautiful community.  Keep Opelika Beautiful does a tremendous job.  Most of our neighborhoods and our residents take a great deal of pride in their lawns and what their homes look like…and then we have folks that abuse things with these signs.”  The Mayor also stated that the last thing he wanted to see was for any citizen to be fined for placing a sign on city property, but the city will enforce the ordinance when needed!  The new ordinance does not cover signs placed on private property.

What is a Right of Way?  ROW areas differ in width, depending on the streets.  According to city attorney Guy Gunter, the public right of way is defined as “the entire street or highway right of way property line to property line, including sidewalks and parkways.”  Utility poles and water mains are inside the public right of way.  The BEST WAY for citizens to ensure they are not placing signage in the city right of way is to place them behind the line of utility poles!