Middletown is updating its public sign ordinance, and political signs will take the hardest hit.
Township supervisors unanimously approved advertising an ordinance that changes the policy on temporary public signs to comply with a federal court ruling ordering all Pennsylvania municipalities to treat all temporary public signs identically.
That means any sign — baseball sign-ups, power-washing services, businesses that charge to hang Christmas lights on your house — will come under scrutiny by the township and will face hefty fines of $500 a day per violation.
Even “for sale” signs in front yards would be subject to the new rules.
The move would put the township
in compliance with a May 2024 ruling from the U.S. Third District Court that found Camp Hill Borough gave preference to “for sale” signs and commercial advertising signs over political signs and signs bearing personal political opinions.
Town officials allowed a maximum of just two personal expression signs per property, a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech. Camp Hill had created a “crazy quilt” of rules that punished political opinions while commercial signs or those bearing holiday messages went untouched.
Under Middletown’sproposed ordinance, no sign — no matter its content or message — would be permitted within a township right-of-way, usually along busy highways.
Also, political signs would not be permitted to appear more than 30 days prior to an election, and would be required to be removed within 10 days after the election. The ban of signs in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's rights-of-way, such as Bristol-Oxford Valley Road in Levittown, has been in place for years, but is rarely enforced.
Township solicitor Jim Esposito said that the township, among the biggest in Bucks County with 50,000 residents, is simply too large and busy to have a dedicated roving crew patrolling rights-of-way for signs that aren't in compliance.
But, he added, the township will act if it receives a complaint. Any sign in a right-of-way is subject to removal.
“We’ll have the road crews who are out doing their normal work remove signs from our [rights-of-way] when they see them,” he said.
The $500 a day fine would be imposed by district justices, but the township prefers to give first-time offenders grace, Esposito said. And repeat offenders could face stiff penalties.
“If the case goes before [a district justice], and he says ‘Hey, you were told not to put the sign there,’ those cases would be subject to the penalty,” Esposito said.
In the case of a “for sale” sign, or signs expressing an opinion that are on private property, even a residential front lawn, the township may take a lighter touch, especially if no one’s complained about it.
“But even they must comply with the size of the sign,” Esposito said.
A single sign cannot be more than 12 square feet, and all signs cannot exceed a total of 24 square feet, he added.
JD Mullane can be reached at jmullane@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Middletown updates sign rules with potential $500 fines
