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Realtors Seek Change To Arlington Sign Ordinance

By: Michael Pope // February 25, 2011
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Some real estate agents in Arlington are asking for confiscated "open house" signs back from the county.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkanouse/2567220276/
Some real estate agents in Arlington are asking for confiscated "open house" signs back from the county.

Every week, zoning inspectors in Arlington County, Va., confiscate hundreds of directional signs that point toward open houses. Realtor Pat Neuman says she has about 30 of her signs taken by county workers ever year.

"Well, it helps the sign companies. But it's wasteful for metal and the posts that the signs are on, they're metal as well. You have to buy those. And it's expensive," she explains.

Neuman says she would like to see County Board members consider allowing realators to retrieve confiscated signs, and she would also like to see signs allowed on Tuesdays, when brokers hold open houses for agents.

But that idea will be a hard sell to people like Robert Lauderdale, an Arlington resident who makes a point of taking down signs he feels are illegal.

"Basically all they are are spam and three-dimensional pop-up adds in the real world," Lauderdale says.

The County Board is expected to amend the sign ordinance before the end of the year.

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