The County will crack down on illegal billboards on Highway 92
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Barry Parr
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This new billboard is significantly larger than any of the illegal billboards already on Highway 92. It's impossible to miss as you enter Half Moon Bay. Of course, that's the point.
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Barry Parr
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If you have $2.7 million, you can buy a "stunning view". If you don't, you can always look at the billboards on this scenic highway. This is how it looks when you're leaving Half Moon Bay. Click on the image for a larger, but not life-size, view.
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The County will begin enforcing its ordinance forbidding offsite commercial advertising signs along the Highway 92 corridor.
The number and size of billboards on Highway 92, the scenic gateway to Half Moon Bay from the Bayside, has been growing. These signs outside the Half Moon Bay city limits, so they’re under the County’s jurisdiction.
But, until last week, the county was not enforcing its own ordinances forbidding offsite advertising signs in the coastal zone. According to Dave Holbrook, Senior Planner, enforcement was awaiting the completion of a study of the signs on the highway. That study was begun in 2003, but had been sidetracked by changes in personnel and priorities.
That all changed last last week.
"Commercial offsite signage is not permitted in a coastal zone," says Jim Eggemeyer, the County’s Interim Planning Administrator—the coastal zone on Highway 92 extends to Skyline. "We will be enforcing the code on that corridor; identifying signage and sending owners a notice of violation." The law does not affect signs for the business at that location, non-commercial signs, temporary agriculture-oriented signs, or signs in the highway’s right-of-way.
The change was prompted by a call from Coastsider. Just after the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, I was surprised to see a new billboard on Highway 92. This one, for "Spyglass Living", was much larger than any signs—including existing Spyglass Living billboards—on the scenic highway.
I called Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office to find out who had jurisdiction over advertising signs on Highway 92. Supervisor Gordon’s office needed about a week of digging before they could get back to me with an answer, but it was a good one.
I was told the signs were illegal and that the county would enforce the law.
Supervisor Gordon told me, "After your call, I took a ride out there, and there was this big, brand-new sign. I contacted staff first thing Monday morning. They told me these signs needed a coastal development permit. I understand the needs of entrepreneurs, but the rules are the rules."
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