Pennsylvania town to relax restrictions on political yard signs
By The Associated Press
01.16.01
WESTMONT, Pa. — The Borough Council in this Johnstown suburb will change an ordinance so residents can have multiple campaign signs in their yard.
Rob Gleason, a borough resident and Cambria County Republican Committee Chairman, was threatened with a citation when he had four signs in his yard last November. The borough has an ordinance limiting signs to one per yard, designed to prevent commercial signs from cluttering residential neighborhoods.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to stop similar ordinances elsewhere and threatened to intervene. Gleason instead argued alone at a council meeting last month that the ordinance violates free-speech rights unless it is redrawn to exclude political signs.
The council agreed yesterday and sent the ordinance to their solicitor for fine-tuning. The council plans to formally adopt the new ordinance next month.
The change will allow residents to have any number of campaign signs — endorsing candidates, not issues — in their yard during the 30 days before primary and general elections. The signs can be no larger than 9-feet square.