BP BHEAD INT H

AN ACT Relating to political campaign signs; amending RCW 47.36.180; adding new sections to chapter 42.17 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 47.36 RCW; creating a new section; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the placement of political campaign signs in the immediate vicinity of public streets, roads, and highways interferes with the ability of motorists to see vital traffic safety information displayed by traffic signals and traffic signs and therefore creates a hazard to public safety. It is the purpose of this act to provide for the prompt removal of such hazards to the safety of the public.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 42.17 RCW to read as follows:

As used in section 3 of this act, "political campaign sign" means any outdoor notice, placard, poster or other sign containing written, pictorial, or other matter urging or supporting the election of a candidate for partisan or nonpartisan elective office or the adoption or rejection of a ballot measure.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 42.17 RCW to read as follows:

As provided in RCW 47.36.180 and section 5 of this act, it is unlawful to place a political campaign sign in the right of way or in the visual safety corridor of a public road, street, or highway and any campaign sign so placed is subject to prompt removal and destruction.

Sec. 4. RCW 47.36.180 and 1984 c 7 s 201 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) It is unlawful to erect or maintain at or near a city street, county road, or state highway any structure, sign, or device:

((~~(1)~~)) (a) Visible from a city street, county road, or state highway and simulating any directional, warning, or danger sign or light likely to be mistaken for such a sign or bearing any such words as "danger," "stop," "slow," "turn," or similar words, figures, or directions likely to be construed as giving warning to traffic;

((~~(2)~~)) (b) Visible from a city street, county road, or state highway and displaying any red, green, blue, or yellow light or intermittent or blinking light or rotating light identical or similar in size, shape, and color to that used on any emergency vehicle or road equipment or any light otherwise likely to be mistaken for a warning, danger, directional, or traffic control signal or sign;

((~~(3)~~)) (c) Visible from a city street, county road, or state highway and displaying any lights tending to blind persons operating vehicles upon the highway, city street, or county road, or any glaring light, or any light likely to be mistaken for a vehicle upon the highway or otherwise to be so mistaken as to constitute a danger; or

((~~(4)~~)) (d) Visible from a city street, county road, or state highway and flooding or intending to flood or directed across the roadway of the highway with a directed beam or diffused light, whether or not the flood light is shielded against directing its flood beam toward approaching traffic on the highway, city street, or county road.

(2) Any structure or device erected or maintained contrary to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section is a public nuisance, and the department, the chief of the Washington state patrol, the county sheriff, or the chief of police of any city or town shall notify the owner thereof that it constitutes a public nuisance and must be removed, and if the owner fails to do so, the department, the chief of the Washington state patrol, the county sheriff, or the chief of police of any city or town may abate the nuisance.

If the owner fails to remove any such structure or device within fifteen days after being notified to remove the structure or device, he or she is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(3) It is unlawful to erect a political campaign sign, as defined in section 2 of this act, in the right of way or in the visual safety corridor of a city street, county road, or state highway. The visual safety corridor of the street, road, or highway is the corridor determined under section 5 of this act. A person who erects a sign in violation of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor. Such a sign which is affixed in any manner or left unattended in such a right of way or visual safety corridor is hereby declared to be abandoned property and is subject to immediate removal and destruction by the public agency responsible for the maintenance of the right of way for the street, road, or highway involved.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 47.36 RCW to read as follows:

(1) If a unit of local government or the state's department of transportation determines that the placement of political campaign signs, as defined in section 2 of this act, outside of the right of way but near a public street, road, or highway within its jurisdiction impairs or is likely to impair the ability of motorists on the public way to see traffic signals or signs, the unit or the department may adopt a visual safety corridor within which the placement of such signs is prohibited. Such a corridor may be no larger than is necessary to protect the ability of motorists to see such signals or signs. As used in this section, the ability of a motorist to see a signal or sign includes the motorist's ability to recognize readily a traffic signal or sign against a background of other objects.

(2) The department of transportation and each unit of local government shall provide for the prompt removal and destruction of any political campaign sign which is affixed in any manner or left unattended in such a right of way or visual safety corridor within its jurisdiction.

(3) The authority and responsibility of the department of transportation under this section applies to the highways for which the state has right of way maintenance responsibility.