Was heading down Franz Road to see if anyone had picked up the plywood from the signs at Mason Road when I came up behind a Harris County truck with a yellow warning light flashing on the roof.

Out popped a guy in an orange jump suit who grabbed a bandit sign, tossed it in the back of the nearly full pickup, back in the truck and on it continued. I slowed as I passed, rolled down my passenger side window, and looked over at the driver who was grinning from ear to ear. I laughed and gave him a big thumbs ups up which I he appreciated and acknowledged with what seemed like an impossibly but even bigger grin.

Oh, before I forget.. it seems the 4x8 board signs that were placed by trespassers are gone from Franz and Mason.

Now if we could get them to pull all the 4X8's that have popped up on the I-10 westbound access road just before WestGreen.

Think some commando sharking with the trusty ole recip saw may in order soon.

AllAction

Chain saws are a lot quicker and easier.

I saw a TxU ROW maintenence crew take down three 4x8 apartment signs in their ROW about four or five months ago. It took them all of about five minutes to cut the signs off even with the ground and then cut through the signs at two places thus rendering them totally useless to be put back up.

It was really funny, the apartments in question were right across the street from the ROW and the maintenence crew took the reminaing parts of the signs across the road and piled them up in the setback between the sidewalk and street on the apartments side of the street.

One of the managers came out and got in the crew chiefs face and wanted to know what the heck he was doing. The crew chief politiely told her the signs belong to the apartments and not TxU AND if they put any more signs up on the TxU ROW, that TxU would file criminal trespass on the manager and the apartment owners.

One of the area sharks sent an email to TxU customer service outling the problem. Two days later the signs were gone.
So far that area has remained totally free of all signs, word must have spread fast.

If the signs referred to are in the right of way, suggest you contact TxDOT, Harris County, at 713.934.5900.

If the signs are not in the ROW's and you suspect that they were placed without the owners knowledge or permission,
then call the owner or property manager.

If it turns out that the signs were placed with permission, BUT, were done so as to hinder visibility or they're a safety issue;
then take it up with the owner or property manager.

If you don't get anywhere with the owner or property manager, then call TxDot and file a complaint.

If it turns out the signs were placed without the onwer's permission, ask if they will give you permission to remove them or if they would kindly send someone out to remove the signs.

As a general rule this tactful approach will work.

Don't forget that in almost every case, an off-premise sign requires a permit. A property owner can give permission for someone to enter their property but that does not mean that a sign they erect is legal.

In most cities it would be illegal for me to put up a "Fine Apartments at 123 Main St" sign on my own residential or business property.

Of course, the remedy for an illegal sign on private property is to talk to the property owner or to the authorities. This avoids the possibility of being charged with trepass.

Newbie (not)

It has been illegal since 1983 to post most "Off Premises" signs in Harris County. These are signs advertising for something at some other location than where the sign is physically located. This restriction shows up in various city and extraterritorial Harris County of which most Harris county falls within under the city of Houston sign codes. If they are allowed to put them up, they have to have a permit and pay a yearly fee. On one side, look at all the revenue the city/county is missing out on if they were doing their job. The laws are on the books. The city/county/state officials just choose to not enforce them, hopefully due only to the lack of money.

Again here in Harris county most of the spamming comes from the home builders, and of course they have their on lobby group through the Greater Houston Builders Association, http://www.ghba.org/. This is where pressure should be put. They have sent out e-mails to their members noting increased enforcement in past but with little compliance from their members. They move the signs over to empty property without the owners permission and go merrily on their way.

Here is the code with lots of details. Page 36 is about signs on right of way, illegally placed on private property without the property owners permission, etc.

http://www.publicworks.cityofhouston.gov/planning/enforcement/docs/signcode.pdf

Well said.

Listed on the Greater Houston Builder Association website is the self serving statement that they "Worked with members and local governments to find a viable, directional sign alternative to bandit signs." That was a so-called accomplishment in 2004. The GHBA has clearly not made much progress since then and the bandit sign epidemic is rampant and continues grow. As you said, “..here in Harris county most of the spamming comes from the home builders.”
GHBA members are truly the ring leaders when it comes to illegal signage in the Houston and outlying areas.