Pierce County Council and Executive Pat McCarthy reached an agreement last week involving removal of illegal signs placed on county right of way.

Some of those illegal signs are in the Bonney Lake and Sumner area.

According to Bruce Wagner, Pierce County road operations manager, several intersections and arterials in the area have a history of problems with sign placement. He e-mailed a list July 15 of intersections and arterials were illegal sign are placed to the Couier-Herald.

They are Sumner-Buckley Highway at 198th Avenue, South Prairie Road at 214th Avenue and 214th Ave at Sumner-Buckley Highway.

Arterials which have sign problems are Rhodes Lake Road, 112th Strtee East, 120th Street, Prairie Ridge Drive, South Prairie Road, 214th Avenue, 218th Avenue, Sumner Tapps Highway, South Tapps Drive East and Sumner Buckley Highway.

Wagner said between February and August last year, more than 11,000 signs countywide from the busiest intersections and arterial roads.

“The number of signs removed by intersection over time varied; however, by the time the program was put on hold in September, we saw a significant decline in the number of signs being illegally placed in the road rights-of-ways in general,” said Wagner.

“We won’t have counts on the current number of illegal signs in place, or consequently removed, from these locations until the program begins again next month.”

The agreement stems from a meeting involving Council Chairman Roger Bush, McCarthy and Public Works and Utilities Director Brian Ziegler, who presented a range of 12 possible strategies for dealing with sign removal.

Under the agreement, signs will be removed from all locations where they present a safety hazard or impediment, and from 10 to 15 of the worst intersections.

The plan also includes regular sweeps of major arterial roadways. Sign owners will receive a letter informing them that their signs were removed and explaining Pierce County sign laws.

The main goal of the new strategy is to achieve compliance with sign laws.

The council will be provided regular reports on the program from Public Works and Utilities.

Political campaign signs will be protected as a form of free speech, and real estate open house signs can remain if within the provisions of the recently revised law.

A two-person crew will implement the sign removal program. They will provide photo evidence of each sign to prove that it was placed in the county right of way and a record of its removal. Tracking and documentation is necessary to enable enforcement of the law for repeat violators.

Illegal signs that are removed will be recycled.

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