675 Illegal Stop Signs About to be Legalized

The City Council's safety services and licenses committee approved a plan on Monday that would legalize 675 stop signs that aren't recorded in the code books.

The plan is now headed to the City Council for approval, which would resolvewhen a city review revealed hundreds of signs were installed without proper authorization. 

If the council approves the plan, all existing signs would be recorded in the city's code of ordinances and the city's traffic engineer would review each one and determine if any should be removed. That process is expected to take quite some time as the city has about 2,000 signs in total.

Of the 676 signs, on state roads or by past police chiefs under an old ordinance giving them the authority to authorize sign installations. But about 300 were erected without any authorization whatsoever.

It's not uncommon for cities and towns to have illegal stop signs, city officials said. Usually, they're erected by order of some city official in an attempt to appease a resident or neighborhood, by recommendation of police, or after a serious accident. It is believed that some of the signs were installed by residents, or moved from one location to another illegally. 

And there's another explanation. 

"I take responsibility for many of the signs," said former Mayor Michael A. Traficante. "When I was mayor and when I was on the council, we had many requests for stop signs."

Traficante said it wasn't uncommon for a neighborhood to lobby the city for a sign, and in many cases, they got them.

"People would complain about people speeding through the neighborhood and wanted to slow the cars down," Traficante said.

The current plan is similar to one proposed by former Councilman Mario Aceto last year. That plan stalled after the debate led to the question of exactly how many illegal stop signs there were. He raised the issue after traffic violations were getting dismissed in municipal court cases because judges could not find any record of the signs. That led to the report that revealed the nearly 700 illegal stop signs throughout the city. The report initially listed 692 signs, but that number has been reduced to 675.

The City Council will take up the issue at its Feb. 28 meeting.