Real estate agents to Federal Way: Please keep your hands off our signs.
That’s the message about 20 agents sent Tuesday night when they protested the Federal Way City Council’s stricter enforcement of its sign code.
They say the city is hurting their business by picking up open house signs in the public right of way. Times are tough enough with the slumping housing market, agents told the council.
They want the city to add an exception to the code, allowing real estate professionals to put up sandwich boards at least during open house hours.
Otherwise, agents will have to advise sellers there’s little reason to hold open houses because agents can’t direct people to their homes, said Marylyn Gates, a Federal Way agent for Windermere Real Estate.
The agents also don’t want the city removing directional “for sale” signs.
“I would just ask you to imagine how you would feel if you were trying to sell your home in these challenging times,” Gates said.
In a similar appeal, Pierce County real estate agents spoke out in March after road crews began removing and throwing away illegally installed signs on county rights of way. The sign roundup was part of a countywide effort to enforce longtime sign laws.
Federal Way City Council members didn’t comment on the sign issue, which wasn’t on Tuesday’s agenda.
Mayor Jack Dovey referred the matter to the council’s land use and transportation committee, which will meet Monday.
“I feel we need to listen to their concerns,” councilwoman Linda Kochmar said in an interview Wednesday.
Especially in a down economy, “we need to accommodate them, if possible,” said Kochmar, chairwoman of the council committee.
Recently, Federal Way has more clearly defined where signs are illegal in the public right of way and enforced the code prohibiting them. The off-limits areas cover roads and the space between curbs and the outside edge of utility boxes, power poles and fire hydrants.
Medians with grass and landscaping are off-limits also.
Since more houses are on the market this year and fewer are selling, more real estate signs are being displayed.
In May, 547 homes were for sale in Federal Way, compared with 417 in May 2007, according to regional real estate figures.
Some streets and medians also have been inundated with election signs.
“We’ve been getting some complaints about the signs,” said Lee Bailey, the city’s building official. “We’ve been picking up more in the past six months.”
He estimated that the city’s picked up from 50 to 75 signs during that period.
The city keeps the signs for 15 days. Owners can fill out a form at City Hall and get their signs back for $5 each. If no one claims them during that time, they are destroyed.
The city confiscated at least 12 signs from three real estate agencies on June 18 for a two-hour open house, according to Gates.
She said the 2-foot-by-2-foot wood sandwich signs cost $200 for six.
Gates and another Windermere agent, Joni Ribera, got their signs back. The city waived monetary charges after she and Ribera met with city officials, Gates said.
But Ribera said getting the signs back “took a lot of time and effort.”
She said that during past election seasons, signs with council members’ names plastered on them outnumbered real estate signs. City Council seats are not on the ballot this year.
Organizers for the Federal Way Farmers Market also complained that the code enforcement leaves them little space to place their signs along the sides of roads.
“There’s really no spot we can put them up without their being taken,” said Karla Kolibab, the market manager.
Carol Stopper, who’s on the farmers market board, added, “It doesn’t seem to me to be conducive to doing business in the city.”
Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647
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