Sahuarita cracking down on illegal homebuilder signs

Drive around Sahuarita on the weekend and you’ll see that signs are everywhere — so many that residents have complained and town officials are planning a crackdown.

The signs include scores of home builders’ signs illegally placed on the roadside on most weekends, as well as a scattering of signs for other businesses, churches and sports leagues.

Town staff did a count on a recent weekend and saw more than 100 illegally placed home builders’ signs, Town Planning and Zoning Director Sarah S. More said. A Quail Creek resident said he counted about 120 each on two separate weekends before that.

More has sent a letter to home builders advising them that if they do not pull the roadside signs, “staff will begin conducting weekend sweeps and issuing fines to violators. The minimum fine imposed by the hearing officer for violation of the sign code is $50 per violation per day.”

The town allows builders to show their locations on kiosk signs that list a number of builders, but town code does not allow for individual signs away from a builders site, More said.

“The Town of Sahuarita’s Planning and Zoning Department has received complaints from residents of the Town regarding the posting of directional (arrow) signs and other signs advertising new home sales,” the letter read. “These ‘bandit signs’ are not in compliance with the Town’s Zoning Code. This code provides a framework of comprehensive sign standards and is a part of the community’s decision to preserve and enhance the natural, scenic desert environment of the area,” the letter continued.

The letter said, “While we understand the need to advertise, particularly in this difficult economy, off-site signs are nevertheless illegal.”

Residents and members of the town council and planning commission have complained about the signs.

“It’s a beautiful place. This is a community value. It’s gotten to the point of litter. It’s not one of these gray areas,” More said.

The plan director said “staff went out a week or two after the letter went out and nothing had changed. The conversation (from builders) has been, ‘I want to comply but if so-and-so builder still doesn’t, then I am at an unfair disadvantage.’”

More may convene a meeting of all builders to deal with that argument.

Another option, she said, is for town staff to simply start removing signs, or take pictures and start issuing citations. Another option is to plaster bright “violation” stickers over the signs, leaving the name of the builder visible, an aproach she used in her former job in Oro Valley.

“It sends a message to the community that we are enforcing and this company is not complying with the laws of the community. We will then give them 24 or 48 hours to remove the signs” or town staff will do so.

Resident Greg Durnan of Quail Creek said he noticed that after the town staff a year or two ago did some sign removals on Friday mornings, the signs began popping up later in the day, after office hours, and Durnan said he even saw a truck unloading signs at 12:25 a.m one Saturday at Nogales Highway and Sahuarita Road.

Durnan said he noticed that those who used smaller signs simply left the three-foot tall wooden stakes in the ground along the roadside all week, then popped plastic signs back on the stakes late Friday and removed them Sunday night or early Monday. So Durnan began pulling up the stakes on weekdays, when the signs were gone. He estimated that he pulled up about 700 stakes in a year and a half, at first taking them home, then throwing them in construction dumpsters.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com| 547-9738