P&Z Drops Plan To Control Political Signs

By Andrew Gorosko

After considering a range of legal decisions that uphold citizens’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members have opted against creating a set of zoning rules to regulate the use of political advertising signs on private property.

At a session earlier this month, P&Z members had made plans to conduct a September 2 public hearing on zoning regulations proposed to control the placement of temporary political signs associated with the annual November elections.

In the past, political campaign advertising signs were largely absent from Newtown, as the two major political parties informally agreed to abstain from posting such advertising. With the emergence of new political organizations, however, signs advertising candidates of all parties have become part of the local landscape during the fall election season.

The P&Z’s intent in regulating political signs was to control the “visual clutter” that such sign postings could create.

But after reviewing a set of legal decisions concerning the posting of political advertising signs submitted to the P&Z by Bruce Walczak, who is the chairman of the Independent Party of Newtown (IPN), P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean told P&Z members at an August 19 session that the agency probably should not create political sign regulations.

Those various legal rulings upheld citizens’ First Amendment rights as they pertain to freedom of speech as expressed by the posting of political signs.

Ms Dean told P&Z members, “I suggest we do nothing. It’s a First Amendment right.”

The courts have ruled in favor of letting people post political advertising signs on their private property, she said. “I just don’t think it’s worth trying to regulate [political] signs,” she said.

On August 25, Ms Dean, however, stressed that political signs cannot be posted on public property as a matter of zoning enforcement.

The proposed political sign rules would have applied to the posting of such signs on private property.

Ms Dean said that the P&Z will still hold the planned September 2 public hearing.

Public comments at that session will be sought concerning how the town can encourage people to remove political signs from private property following elections, she said. Such sign removal would counter the visual clutter that can be created by sign postings, she said.

Under the political sign regulations that had been proposed by the P&Z, one temporary political advertising sign would have been allowed to be posted on any lot by either the resident or by the owner only. Such signs could have been posted up to 30 days before an election and would have needed to be removed within two days after an election.

Under the now-defunct proposal, such signs could not be affixed to utility poles, trees, or structures; such signs could not be positioned in a way that would impair motorists’ lines of sight or adversely affect traffic safety, and the maximum size for a political sign would have been four square feet in area.

Issues which P&Z members had reviewed in considering the now-defunct sign proposal included: time limits for sign postings; the number of signs to be allowed on a property; rules on the signs’ removal, and where such signs would be allowed.