After seeing billboard-size election signs sprout at a prominent Cedar Avenue corner last fall, Apple Valley officials have proposed forbidding all signs from rights of way to improve aesthetics and driver sightlines.
The local chamber of commerce calls it overkill for a situation that only surfaces in election years. Realtors, who erect weekend open-house signs, and home sellers would be hurt by a sign ban, especially in a difficult economy, said Apple Valley chamber President Ed Kearney.
"I can't understand why [open-house signs] would be upsetting to the council," echoed Richard Tucker, president-elect of the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors.
"Nobody wants to see a blight of signs, but not allowing Realtors to put up open-house signs ... makes no sense at all."
At least two other cities note that they allow election signs in the right of way to comply with a state law aimed at protecting free speech.
Lakeville, however, is an example of a city that forbids all signs in the right of way, said Administrator Steve Mielke. However, he said, he will review the state law. "We have to be cautious that we are not impacting the First Amendment," he said.
Legal advice to Apple Valley has been that signs must be treated equally, so, if campaign signs are banned from the right of way, all signs must go, said Bruce Nordquist, community development director.
State law says campaign signs must be allowed 46 days before a primary and 100 days before a general election. The law doesn't specify that public right of way is exempt from that, so Minnetonka allows only campaign signs in its right of way, said City Attorney Desyl Peterson.