Along the major roadways in unincorporated Harris and Montgomery counties, numerous signs—advertising, political and business-oriented—pop out of the sidewalk and telephone poles, creating what some might call a public nuisance.
Any type of signage in the public right of way—which stretches from the utility poles on one side of the street to another—is considered a bandit sign, according to the Harris County Attorney's office.
"In Houston it's a tremendous problem," said Ken Latimer, volunteer with the Cypress Creek Bandit Sign Group. "Drive down Hwy. 249 or Veteran's Memorial. They're all over the place."
Although legislation was signed into law in 2007 giving the county attorney's office the power to take legal action and collect fines from violators, the issue of bandit signs is still a problem throughout unincorporated Harris County. If a complaint is filed, the sign owner can be fined as much as $1,000 per day. Concerned residents can remove certain bandit signs under the law, Latimer said.
Bandit signs are illegal throughout the entire state of Texas, but it remains a tremendous problem in Houston, Latimer said.
Both the cities of Magnolia and Tomball have a sign ordinance, prohibiting such signs. Magnolia's code enforcement officer enforces the ordinance in city limits.
Starting March 20, the city of Tomball entered the implementation phase of the updated sign ordinance passed by City Council. City officials identified prohibited signs within both city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction and informed sign owners to remove them.
The sign ordinance lists the following as prohibited signs: inflatable signs, human and living signs, attention getting devices, bandit signs, portable signs, and obscene signs. Freestanding temporary signs are also prohibited, but they will be allowed in cases where a business wants to promote an event with a specific time frame that is temporary in nature, said Rebeca Guerra, Tomball's city planner. Directional signs identifying where a business or an entrance is will also be allowed.
The ordinance was updated to make the city more attractive by clearing up some of the visual clutter, Guerra said. She said about 1,300 brochures explaining the details of the ordinance were mailed out to non-residential addresses throughout the city and ETJ. Each brochure listed Guerra's contact information and the information for the code enforcement officer.
Additional reporting by Shawn Arrajj and Tamra Santana
