![Sample our Built Environment journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5926/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Built-Environment.jpg"})
Abstract
The residents of scenic Manatee County, Florida, criticized portable signs as “inherently ugly,”1 but some judges and business owners have praised them as an essential, economical medium of communication. With the increasing use of portable signs in the last 20 years, communities are facing inevitable questions: Are portable signs inherently ugly? Do they present traffic safety hazards? Should they be regulated? If so, how? Which regulatory approaches are illegal? This commentary looks at some legal and effective ways of regulating portable signs. It is the result of a survey of 60 ordinances from various communities in 30 states and one Canadian province that were submitted to the American Planning Association for the 1988 publication of Street Graphics and the Law by Daniel Mandelker and William Ewald.