Port Orchard staff and committee members discussed public notice signage used during permitting and public-notice periods and agreed to strengthen enforcement and removal practices.
Community Development Director Nick Bond explained the city's process: the city buys blank public-notice corrugated signs, adds the project information, charges the applicant a sign fee, and the applicant is responsible for posting and maintaining the sign during the active permit period. "It is their responsibility to put up the sign and and ensure that it stays up," Bond said, adding staff will call owners if a sign blows down and that replacement may be required if the sign becomes illegible during an active comment period.
Committee members raised multiple concerns: long‑standing signs left in place after projects stall or are withdrawn, repeated graffiti or defacement in locations such as McCormick Woods, and safety concerns when drivers try to read small signs from the roadway. Chair Jay Rose Pepe and Mayor Papa Pecanci discussed adding a condition requiring developers to remove signs after decisions and using code enforcement to send removal letters. "We're gonna put a condition in the the process that they have to remove it. And if they don't, they're gonna have to pay a fee, and we're gonna do it," Pecanci said. Staff urged the public to report defaced signs through the city's permitting contact or the ClickFix tool so the city can require replacement when the comment period is still open. Bond recommended against enlarging sign size because larger signs would need reinforced posts and higher costs and could create wind-load problems; he also said larger signs might encourage unsafe roadside reading.
The committee directed staff to pursue enforcement options, inform code enforcement, and update permit conditions so applicants are explicitly required to remove signs after project completion or pay to have the city remove them if they fail to comply.