The Kingsville "Bull"

Another kind of ugly roadside sign, which luckily does not appear very often, got put up in Kingsville, along US 1 as you come into the village from the north. This is a large metal sculpture of a bull set on a concrete base, with a "Kingsville" sign on the bottom as if it were a sanctioned community sign, and lit up at night. It is totally private, put up by a private individual on his own land. But, under the County Sign Code, it is a "sign" and must comply with the Sign Code. That means that, if you argue that it is a "community sign", which is the only type of sign in the Code that is even close, it needs a permit and it is limited to 6 ft tall. That would allow the base with "Kingsville" on it, minus the bull.

To make matters worse, the property also has a large campaign sign (left over from the 2016 elections). The County used to have a law that campaign signs had to be removed within 7 days after the election, but a federal district court, in their twisted logic, declared this time limit to be unconstitutional. However, the limit on size still stands - 8 sq ft on residential.

On March 8, 2017, someone filed a complaint for "large political sign still up". The case was "dismissed" the same day, probably because of the court ruling, but the "large" part of the complaint was ignored. No hint was added to the online record as to why it was dismissed.

Another complaint was filed on May 20 for the sign and the large bull. The online record was noted "per Lionel van Dommelen - check for violations on the bull". The photo above is the inspector's. A correction notice was issued on June 6 as "Permit required for Kingsville/bull, provide permit or remove." Again, the large political sign was ignored.

I first heard about this the morning of June 12 when David Marks called me, saying that my name was being tossed around Towson as probably the one who had filed the complaint. I wasn't. He then had a short discussion via Facebook with some neighbors chiming in and felt that the majority liked the bull, so he convinced CE to drop the case. The problem is that the people I know who are opposed to this sign (including myself) do not do Facebook. As we're going to remind David, it doesn't matter how many people like it - it only matters whether it is legal.