Board adopts tighter restrictions on signs posted to lampposts and utility poles

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Aug. 1 adopted an ordinance amending Article 5.6 of the Public Works Code to increase restrictions on signs posted to city-owned lampposts and utility posts on commercial streets.

Supporters and several supervisors framed the change as an effort to reduce maintenance costs and visual clutter on public rights-of-way; opponents and some supervisors urged the board to consider the effect on lower-budget political campaigns and other community postings. The board adopted the measure by roll call vote during the consent/adoption portion of the meeting.

The ordinance amends the code to tighten where and how material may be affixed to poles in the public right-of-way. Legislative Analyst Andrew Murray told the board his office surveyed other jurisdictions and “found that most prohibit the posting of all signs, notices, and flyers, including advertisements and non commercial signs on poles in the public rights of way, except by city employees.” Murray said those rules vary in strictness among cities, but a prohibition on unpermitted postings is common.

Supervisor McGoldrick pressed staff for comparisons and said he wanted the Legislative Analyst’s Office (OLA) report in his packet before action; the clerk later confirmed a printed copy of the OLA report could be supplied. Deputy City Attorney Cheryl Adams told the board the ordinance, “as drafted,” had been reviewed and that the city did not expect a successful First Amendment challenge: “We don’t feel there’s any need to be concerned about a legal challenge as drafted.”

San Francisco Department of Public Works staff previously told supervisors that removal of illegal postings and repair of paint or pole damage runs the department roughly $200,000 a year, with much of that cost concentrated around election periods. Murray summarized current practice and how the change would alter it: the city’s prior code treated commercial corridors differently; the proposed amendment would extend restrictions so that posting on poles would be more limited across commercial streets now treated more permissively.

The board discussed technical limits that appear in the draft: posted material limited to a vertical dimension (discussed in the meeting as roughly 11 inches tall and not wider than the pole diameter) and an effort to standardize enforcement citywide rather than allowing patchwork rules by neighborhood. The ordinance’s sponsor and staff said the change is intended to reduce repeated cleanup costs and clarify a longstanding enforcement question; several supervisors asked staff to provide further details and local examples before implementation.

The measure passed on the record during the meeting’s roll call on consent/adoption items. The board also received the Legislative Analyst Office’s comparative summary on other cities and asked staff to make the report broadly available to supervisors for follow-up questions.

—Key details and next steps: The ordinance amends Public Works Code Article 5.6; staff will circulate the OLA jurisdictional survey to supervisors. The board’s adopted language and any implementing regulations will determine precise size limits and enforcement practices going forward.