Are there any regulations against advertising signs in the right of way of a public road?
The reader asking the question is fed up with such signs “making our roads look trashy” and also asks if it is legal to remove such signs if they are on public property maintained by the city or county. Wilmington City Attorney R. Lynn Coleman says the city has an ordinance that prohibits signs in a public right-of-way. The city additionally authorizes code enforcement officers “to remove and dispose of prohibited signs in the right of way,” Coleman adds. New Hanover County does not have any jurisdiction over right of ways in the county, says County Attorney Wanda Copley. That falls to the N.C. Department of Transportation, which does have jurisdiction “and usually removes signs in the right of way when they are performing maintenance or mowing.” In a memo last year to county commissioners on the subject, Copley said that the county’s chief code enforcement officer, Ann Hines, “advises that when they receive complaints an attempt is made to determine the individual or company who has p
