City opens door for ‘open house’ signs

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, July 17, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Much to the chagrin of many Green Valley Ranch residents, the familiar "Open House" real estate signs that sprout each weekend along otherwise clean-swept streets now are legal.

The Henderson City Council on Tuesday decided that the city's half-hearted campaign to confiscate the illegal signs is over.

Starting today new laws will allow the tent-shaped or A-frame signs, but only on the narrow strips of public greenways between sidewalks and streets. Any signs located on sidewalks or in streets will be assessed $200 and then $500 fines.

With the old laws, "We imprison a few signs, but where does that get us?" Mayor Jim Gibson said. "What we have been concerned about is having sign graveyards all over the city."

Gibson said as part of the new enforcement effort, code enforcement officers will start working weekends, when most "Open Houses" are held.

That stepped-up effort wasn't enough for Green Valley Ranch resident Heather Disselkoen.

"As a board member of the community association, it's my duty to protect, preserve and enhance our property values," Disselkoen said. "The signs do none of the above."

On any given weekend, Richard Schmalz, president of the 3,900-member Green Valley Ranch Community Association, said, he sees real estate signs taped to lampposts, on cardboard boxes anchored by rocks, in open medians and in the middle of sidewalks.

"They obstruct people's ability to move about the community in a safe manner," Schmalz said.

Realtor Ed Shuman of Prudential Americana was opposed to the high fines, but said his 250 sales executives would abide by the new laws. In some neighborhoods, he said, signs will be legal only if placed on private property with the permission of homeowners.

"We've always instructed our sales people to put the signs somewhere where they won't inhibit walking," he said. "Of course, so we wouldn't be sued. We've always been very diligent."

Rocky Finseth, government affairs director for the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, a 7,000-member organization, said his group worked on the new laws for more than a year.

With the new laws Henderson still has the most stringent guidelines for realty signs in Southern Nevada, Finseth said.