It is a perennial question and one that defies an obvious answer: Why are easy-to-enforce local laws ignored every single day of the year?
By law, signs are supposed to be strictly controlled. In East Hampton Village, announcements about yard sales and even political campaigns, for example, have to be confined to one’s own property. Real estate and construction signs are allowed but must be relatively tiny — 18 by 18 inches maximum — not taller than three feet off the ground, and installed parallel to the road-facing property line.
Additional limits include that no sign can be flashing, reflective, mobile, or made of cloth, nor can any sign be neon or otherwise electrically illuminated from within. Signs are not allowed on public property or to hang above a right of way unless the village trustees first give written permission. East Hampton Town’s rules are similar, if a little less tough.
Among the current village scofflaws are a pair of contractors’ signs on Further Lane and a flashing “open” sign on Railroad Avenue. Even several dozen fabric signs mounted on Main Street lampposts announcing a May 1 footrace appear to violate at least the spirit of East Hampton Village law. In the town, contractors’ signs on Bluff Road in Amagansett have been left in place for going on three years, and internally illuminated “open” and “ATM” signs are commonplace — and also illegal.
A long time ago, a town board member told us that sign violations were among the easiest for officers to resolve — in many cases, the persons responsible have their contact information right on them, and generally all it takes is a phone call to let them know there is a problem.
With the stakes so low and the violations as widespread as they are, it seems impossible that town and village authorities could be on the take. But if they are not corrupt, they have become corrupted, perhaps by laziness, perhaps by some internalized deference to money and business, but no matter how sympathetic the town and village boards might be to the trades and real estate, the laws are as clear as the signs themselves. That the rules are not generally enforced makes one wonder to what extent other, less obvious, issues are let slide.
East Hampton Town Ordinance Enforcement Department is on the go constantly. In several recent instances, they have discovered workers sleeping onsite in dangerous conditions. Clearly, the sign law has to take a backseat to matters of safety. A new ticketing procedure in which people cited for minor code violations could respond by mail, instead of having to appear in town court, could streamline the process and lead to increased compliance.
If local governments do not like some ordinances they can try to change them; what they should never do is pretend that the rules do not exist or do not apply to them and their friends.