What you need to know about placing signs in the roadway

City ordinances prevent posting so-called “bandit signs” in Fort Worth, but more than 10,000 illegal signs are removed from public streets each year. There is a way to get your message across without being a traffic hazard, causing problems in mowing right of ways or creating the kind of clutter that hurts a neighborhood.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Signs and handbills should never be attached to signposts or utility poles. This includes affixing them with tape, glue, staples, nails, ties or other fastening devices.
• Fort Worth only allows official traffic control devices in the right of way. Do not post a sign in a median, at an intersection or along a road or highway. This prohibition includes signs for garage sales, open houses, houses for sale, home-based businesses and so on.
• For each violation, a citation carrying fines of up to $500 can be issued.

So these are your options:

• You can put a limited number of signs on private property in residential areas as long as your signs do not advertise products or services. Signs cannot exceed 8 square feet; or you can have a maximum of four signs that are less than 16 square feet total.
• If your signs are political in nature, you can have as many as you want, but each sign must be less than 8 square feet and must be removed within 30 days of the election or runoff.
• Having a garage sale? You can have one sign on your property.
• Real estate or “for sale” signs can be placed at the edge of the private property, but not in a parking or landscape strip adjacent to the right of way.

To learn more, call 817-392-1234.

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