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City Needs To Follow Ordinance Regarding Posting of Signs on Trees

Author:Steve Patterson September 18th, 2007

The ordinance regarding the respect for street trees is pretty clear:

22.48.100 Attaching items to trees.

No person shall attach or place any rope, wire, sign, poster, handbill or other thing on any tree or shrub now or hereafter growing in any street or public highway of the city, nor on any guard or protection of such tree or shrub. (Ord. 49772 § 2 (36), 1960: 1960 C. § 242.060.)

Yet I see violations all the time — from the city itself!

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The above would be a public street tree with a public notice stapled to it.

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Getting in closer we see it is a notice about a zoning conditional use hearing — for Larry Rice’s “Alternative Energy Center.” I’ll write more about this situation prior to Thursday so I don’t want comments to be about Rice and all that associated baggage.

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No, this is about street trees and making sure they are properly cared for. It is clear from this and many others that the city doesn’t respect its own trees. I presume someone posting about a garage sale could be cited for such an offense so why shouldn’t the offending city department?

The fine for removing the sign is $500 but what is the fine for posting the sign on a tree?

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  • Usually these are attached to light poles, no parking signs, sometimes even handrails along the front of the property in question. I am surprised to see one attached to a tree; I suspect the building inspector or whoever posted it was just not thinking about the tree.

    I agree it is maddening when stately street trees like that are defaced so. It can really hurt their chances for long-term survival, having metal sticking into them like that.

    The ordinance should not be repealed... but I realize it's not realistic for the Police to enforce something like this. Instead, Forestry crews should remove these defacements to trees when they see them.
  • I'm willing to bet they put up yard signs in what's considered "nicer" neighborhoods. Obviously the yard signs would just get stolen on state street.

    There really should be a better system for displaying these notices. It is particularly unsightly when they saturate streets with the "no parking by police order signs". I've seen the signs on trees, parking meters, street signs, etc. I think there should be some uniformity.
  • I've noticed that in other jurisdictions, they put up yard signs with the information. One of the benefits of that approach is that people might actually pay attention to them--I tend to ignore signs on trees, power poles, etc. because they tend to fall into the "Earn more income at home!" variety .... then again, that runs the risk of having more pesky citizens at the hearings ...
  • Political ads on abandoned buildings? Reed had ads also on the fences of construction sites. He actually also had ads on McKee's Brecht Building which was recently demolished. I agree and it should be enforced.
  • Tim
    Street tree, street people. That's the solution what with the Rev. Rice down there just post a "street person" in front of the property with a sandwich board. Two birds and all......
  • dude
    remove the ordinance. There's a point where the accumulation of too many rules means people start ignoring them. If there is a tree that's a frequent victim, build a message board around it.
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