Looking for Sign-Free Roadsides

County Considers Pact With VDOT

Sick of those diet and day-care ads that clutter up the side of the road? Annoyed by the campaign signs that crop up in the median every year around election time? You're not alone.

"They're the bane of our existence," said Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

"Visual litter," said Loudoun County Supervisor James Burton (I-Blue Ridge).

"It's organized crime," said Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles).

Loudoun officials are considering cracking down on the signs, which not only annoy community leaders but also could also pose a safety hazard if they impair lines of sight, VDOT officials said. No signs are permitted in the VDOT right of way, Morris said, but VDOT does not have the time or staff to remove the ones that spring up by the thousands along roadways and in medians across Northern Virginia.

On Tuesday, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted overwhelmingly to begin negotiating an agreement with VDOT that would allow members of the county's zoning staff and perhaps citizen volunteers to help clean up the signs. Any agreement would need to come back to the board for final approval. VDOT has such an agreement with Fairfax County, according to Loudoun officials.

Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling) cast the lone no vote, saying the money needed for a crackdown on signs would be better spent on zoning enforcement in his district. For nearly a year, the county has been trying to spruce up parts of Sterling with proactive zoning enforcement. Inspectors have been on the lookout for violations such as crowded homes -- an effort that county officials say they might not be able to continue without more funding.

Supervisor Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run) noted that some church congregations meet at schools and other makeshift locations and do not have permanent markers. She suggested that they be exempted from new regulations.

County officials also discussed whether to prosecute repeat offenders of rules on signage.

Typically, VDOT only removes signs that block visibility, Morris said. Every year, the department sends letters to candidates reminding them that campaign signs are not allowed in the right of way. But the problem does not abate, she said.

"They're all over the place," she said. "Unfortunately, Northern Virginia is littered with these signs. They're trash. . . . But we don't have the money or the staff to do anything much about it."

Several supervisors, including Miller, said they were reluctant to devote resources to new zoning enforcement programs when officials are bracing for a brutal budget season. But Burton, who proposed the sign crackdown, said the effort need not be an overwhelming task.

"I don't think it is an extraordinary burden to ask our inspectors on a Friday afternoon . . . to fill up the back of a pickup truck and drop them off at the landfill," he said.

Also Tuesday, the board discussed making it a criminal offense to repeatedly allow too many people to live in a single-family home.

Residential crowding in Loudoun carries a civil penalty. Although criminal violations could result in a heftier punishment than civil violations, they are harder to prove. The board is expected to take up the issue this fall.

The board also discussed, without making a final decision, a suggestion by Burton to reduce the proposed size of a sheriff's substation planned for western Loudoun.