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WILDOMAR, CA – At the request of City Council last year, an ad hoc subcommittee was formed to review the city’s current temporary sign regulations. This has resulted in changes to Wildomar’s Sign Ordinance (Chapters 17.252 and 17.254 of the Wildomar Municipal Code).
The subcommittee, comprised of two Council Members (Ben Benoit and Joseph Morabito) and city staff first met in July 2019 to discuss current temporary sign standards, standards in neighboring cities and the desire to reduce the clutter of temporary signs in Wildomar. The proposed amendment to the sign ordinance was adopted by Council in February 12, 2020 and goes into effect on March 12, 2020.
“The challenge is that we need to be fair to everyone in our city,” said Wildomar Mayor Dustin Nigg. “What we have seen over the years is that the temporary banners, the signs plastered along all of our fences have really gotten out of control. Wildomar is an absolutely beautiful city, but much of that beauty has been blocked by banners everywhere.”
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| Gotta love the long memory of Google maps. If you go back far enough, this place used to be respectable, but for more than ten years it's steadily gone down hill and I feel bad for the long time merchants that try and do business in that shopping center. The banner blight is only the most obvious deterrent that keeps most would be customers from even entering the parking lot.
This photo was NOT part of the press release.
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Off-site signage, and particularly signage affixed to fences, is now strictly prohibited by the changes to the code. Inflatable devices and feather signs are prohibited as well. The changes do not affect garage sales signs, realtor open house signs, political signs or holiday décor.
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| This is an example of banners gone wild. FYI This photo was not in the city's press release. |
CITY OF WILDOMAR – PRESS RELEASE PAGE 2 While some may see this move as not being business friendly, the city’s Economic Development department disagrees.
“Signage is very important to a business,” said Kimberly Davidson, Economic Development Director for the City of Wildomar. “But the most important signage is the business’ permanent sign and any temporary signage should be announcing a current promotion and switched out regularly to attract attention. The offsite signage that we see throughout the city creates visual blight that may hinder future development.”
Davidson also explained that businesses may tend to rely on offsite banners because they are not familiar with other marketing strategies to attract customers to their doors. In order to help their businesses succeed, Wildomar is offering no-cost marketing consultations to its businesses.
“One thing we can offer that many cities can’t is that we have a marketing expert on staff who is happy to meet with our businesses and give them low-cost ideas to attract customers,” Mayor Nigg said.
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| The US Constitution protects political speech, but you'll notice that these banners are on a fence... a big no-no now. If the signs are free standing, and not in the public right of way, they are legal; assuming that they aren't up any sooner than 90 days before or 10 days after an election. If such signs go up this November, I'll be calling the various campaigns letting them know... and if they ignore the friendly reminder, it'll be time to see how serious we are about such things with a report to code enforcement.
I added this photo, it wasn't in the press release.
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