Anyone who drives through Camas regularly knows it’s tough to overlook an upcoming election. The city’s busiest roadways and intersections are hot real estate for political signs, but a new proposal being considered by the Camas City Council could limit those signs to areas outside Camas’ traffic circles.
The proposal, which made its way from the Camas Planning Commission to the council earlier this month, would prohibit temporary signs like those that pop up every election season from being sited in a traffic roundabout or within 150 feet of the roundabout.
Robert Maul, the city’s planning director, has said the proposal to ban temporary signs in and near the city’s two roundabouts — on Sixth Avenue off Highway 14 and at the Lake Road-Everett Street intersection — stemmed from citizens concerned about safety issues.
“During this election season, both roundabouts had a sizable collection of signs,” Maul told members of the city’s planning commission in November 2021. “We received complaints … that the signs created quite a distraction.”
The proposal came to the planning commissioners in late 2021, as part of the city’s annual process for amending Camas’ municipal code.
The Camas City Council sent the list of code amendments back to the planning commission due to concerns that an amendment related to substance abuse facilities could violate state and federal laws, some city councilors also took note of the temporary sign proposal.
Councilwoman Leslie Lewallen questioned if the proposal was actually a safety issue. Lewallen said she was trying to figure out if it was a safety concern or an aesthetic issue and worried the city might be violating people’s freedom of speech by banning signs in city roundabouts.
Though political signs are protected under free speech provisions of the U.S. Constitution, local government bodies such as city councils, can regulate where signs can be placed on public property. Other cities and states have prohibited campaign signs and other temporary signs within traffic roundabouts due to public safety concerns.
Earlier this month, Camas Police Chief Mitch Lackey told the city council members his department believed placing temporary signs inside traffic roundabouts did pose safety issues.
“It’s not safe to have people going out on the roundabout islands with no sidewalks to get in there,” Lackey said during the Council’s April 4 workshop. “They were not built for pedestrian access (inside the roundabout).”
Maul told the city councilors the city had received several complaints about signs placed in Camas’ most recent traffic roundabout at Lake Road and Everett Street during the most recent election season.
“This last political season was the first time using the new roundabout in that fashion,” Maul said. “We had a considerable amount of complaints (from drivers who said the signs distracted them). We’re not prohibiting them citywide, only in the roundabouts and inside this (150-foot) circumference.”
The council will consider the proposal to ban temporary signs inside and within 150 feet of traffic roundabouts later this spring.
