(a)
No person shall place, maintain, or display upon or in view of any highway, street or alley any unauthorized signs, signal, marking or device which purports to be or is an imitation of or resembles an official traffic-control device or railroad sign or signal, or which attempts to direct the movement of traffic, or which hides from view or interferes with the effectiveness of any official control device or any railroad sign or signal.
(b)
No person shall place or maintain nor shall any public authority permit upon any highway, street or alley any traffic sign or signal bearing thereon any commercial advertising.
(c)
This article shall not be deemed to prohibit the erection up on private property adjacent to highways, streets or alleys of signs giving useful directional information and of a type that cannot be mistaken for official signs.
(d)
Every such prohibited sign, signal or marking is hereby declared to be a public nuisance, and the chief of police is hereby empowered to remove the same or cause it to be moved without notice.
(e)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place or affix in the public right-of-way any sign, placard, poster, notice, or other material advertising an event, product, sale, travel directions, political candidacy, or any message whatsoever.
(f)
For the purpose of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that the person responsible for the violation of this section is the person named in the advertisement as the sponsor, owner of the premises, candidate or organizer for which the message relates.
(Ordinance 1231 adopted 3/2/10)