View Original Message
On Monday, February 26th, the City of Corona will begin the process to officially consider a full ban on open house directional signs as part of a complete ban on temporary signs placed in the public right-of-way. The proposal is part of an overreaction to aggressive marketing by some businesses operating in the city, including a handful of real estate businesses.
TIGAR has held numerous discussions with city officials over the past year to find a compromise solution that would yield the city’s stated goal of banning the proliferation of general advertising signs while preserving the use of temporary, directional open house signs in marketing homes for future Corona residents. Those efforts yielded a proposal last year that would have enhanced regulations and provided the industry an opportunity to find a cooperative solution to the issue.
Unfortunately, the City Council rejected any compromise and directed staff, on a narrow 3-2 vote, to begin working on a full ban. TIGAR thanks Council Members Jacque Casillas and Wes Speake for seeking to advance the city staff’s recommendation for a compromise approach based on cooperation.
TIGAR opposes the elimination of well-regulated, open-house directional signs and has asked the City to consider alternatives. The city has declined, based on the direction provided in the prior study session meeting.
Updated Message
On Wednesday, March 20th, the City of Corona City Council is expected to consider a full ban on open house directional signs as part of a complete ban on temporary signs placed in the public right-of-way. The proposal is part of an overreaction to aggressive marketing by some businesses operating in the city, including a handful of real estate businesses.
For years, the City of Corona has failed to enforce its existing signage codes. That decision has led to the escalating problem. Rather than work to enforce the existing code, the city is instead moving to write a new code to outlaw the types of standard, temporary signs that are not part of the problem identified by residents and City staff.
TIGAR has held numerous discussions with city officials over the past year to find a compromise solution that would yield the city’s stated goal of banning the proliferation of general advertising signs while preserving the use of temporary, directional open house signs in marketing homes to future Corona residents. Those efforts led to a proposal last year that would have enhanced regulations and provided the industry an opportunity to find a cooperative solution to the issue.
Unfortunately, the City Council rejected any compromise and directed staff, on a narrow 3-2 vote, to begin working on a full ban. TIGAR thanks Council Members Jacque Casillas and Wes Speake for seeking to advance the city staff’s recommendation for a compromise approach based on cooperation.
TIGAR opposes the elimination of well-regulated, open-house directional signs and has asked the City to consider alternatives. The city has declined, based on the direction provided in the prior study session meeting.
What is TIGAR doing to oppose the ban?
TIGAR, through its Local Government Relations Committee, worked to mobilize members to a planning commission meeting on February 26th. More than 120 TIGAR members, including nearly 100 Corona residents, signed on to a letter that the association submitted to oppose the ban. TIGAR members attended and spoke to the issue in person and participated via Zoom.
Unfortunately, following a two-hour discussion on the topic, the planning commission voted to recommend approval of the ban.
TIGAR is now mobilizing for the March 20th Council Meeting. To date, more than 150 TIGAR members, and counting, have added their names to oppose the ban. We are now asking every member to be prepared to attend the council meeting and let the city know, in person, that they should reject the ban and return to the discussion table for a compromise resolution.
Corona Chamber of Commerce Joins the Effort to Support TIGAR
Following the planning commission meeting, the Corona Chamber of Commerce reached out to TIGAR to express its support to REALTORS® working to stop the ban. The Chamber has initiated its own outreach process to push back on behalf of the business community of our city.
We’d like to extend our sincere “Thank You” to the Corona Chamber of Commerce for their help.
On Wednesday, March 20th, the Corona City Council voted 3-2 to approve a staff recommendation to ban all temporary signs in the public right-of-way. This includes open house signs and any general advertising signs.
Council Members Jacque Casillas (Jacque.casillas@coronaca.gov) and Wes Speake (wes.speake@coronaca.gov) voted with TIGAR to oppose the blanket ban. If you can, please extend your thanks to them. Mayor Tom Richins (tom.richins@coronaca.gov) and Council Members Tony Daddario (tony.daddario@coronaca.gov) and Jim Steiner (jim.steiner@coronaca.gov) voted to approve the ban.
The ban is currently scheduled to take effect near the beginning of May, or 30 days after its anticipated adoption on April 3rd. You can read the full text here:
https://corona.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12756101&GUID=810DD094-281C-441D-B856-6EE9DDC64F0D
We will update the TIGAR website with the new ordinance once it is officially in effect. For specific questions about placing signs on private property, which is not affected by this ordinance, please contact the City of Corona directly.
In the future we will discuss options to bring open house directional signs back.
TIGAR mobilized to oppose the ban. We would like to thank the members, Corona residents and others who signed on to our letter, reached out to the council, spoke at the planning commission meeting or council meeting and otherwise engaged with the issue.
We would also like to thank the Corona Chamber of Commerce which, for the first time, activated its Business Emergency Response Team at the local level to fight with us.
For two years we made a series of recommendations to find a win-win resolution with the city. Your Local Government Relations Committee worked through dozens of suggestions to offer to the city. In the end, the three city council members, in a prior study session and at the March council meeting, allowed only one option to move forward and discussed none of the ones offered by TIGAR.
We are disappointed by the city’s action – and even more so by its approach to reaching a conclusion. We will nonetheless continue working toward the best possible outcomes for our members, their clients and the importance of homeownership at every venue afforded to us.
TIGAR is looking into new avenues for our membership to promote open houses in an effort to bridge the gap caused by this change.
If you have any questions, please send an email to Government Affairs Director Paul Herrera at paul@tigar.org.