POA approves watered down sign rule revisions

After months of controversy and protests, the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association Board of Directors passed the first reading of rule changes for election signs in POA common areas. The rule changes made at its monthly board meeting on Tuesday will need to be finalized after a 28-day “reading” at the next board meeting, which appears to be a formality.

The new changes were eventually whittled down to election signs, the physical maximum size of signs and signs containing vulgar or obscene content. The rule changes also expanded the definition of a sign to include flags, posters and banners.

The rule changes were for signs that are placed in the Community Setback and Common Areas of the association. The setback is the area between the street, golf course or lake and a person’s property line. Except for signs with vulgar or obscene content, the rules do not apply to signs that are placed within a member’s property.

As the rule changes were discussed over the past several months, organized protests and petition signings were organized in opposition to rules that were being contemplated by the board to include signs and flags on vehicles, golf carts and boats. A golf cart “parade” was organized that included carts that traversed the entire community in protest and ended in the Canyon Lake Town Center in front of the Canyon Lake POA corporate offices.

A petition was submitted by Christy Williams and Tim Cook to the board on March 2 with over 600 signatures asking that the board put the proposed amendments to the rules being considered at the time to a vote of CLPOA members. Another petition was submitted by five individuals with over 300 signatures to restore and protect the peace and harmony of Canyon Lake by changing what the board was considering.

Both petitions were accepted by the board, Chris Poland, board president said, as advisory counsel, but were not binding. In recognition of the “spirit” of the petitions, the board held workshops and continued to listen to a barrage of community input.

The result of the hours and hours of discussion on the matter was the unanimous vote Tuesday by the board to make relatively minor changes to the sign rules of the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association.

In addition to signs including flags, posters and banners, the board changed the definition of a sign or poster to be no more than nine square feet and flags and banners to be no more than 15 square feet.

“Political Sign” was changed throughout the rules to now be “Election Sign.” These election signs will continue to be allowed only during a 90-day period prior to an election and 10 days afterwards. The election signs may not be placed on CLPOA common areas, but a limited number may be placed in the Community Setback areas. The board’s initial desire to not allow these signs in the street, on vehicles, on golf carts or on trailers was stricken and are not part of the new revised rules.

The other rule that was revised at the meeting and passed by the board was the rule regarding signs with obscene and vulgar content. It had been rewritten several times over the past months as input was received by community members.

The rule that passed Tuesday and will be up for final vote at the next board meeting states: “No Signs/Flags/Posters/Banners with Vulgar, or Obscene Content or Fighting Words. Regardless of size, no sign, poster, flag, or banner viewable from the common area shall contain or imply by the use of symbols, missing letters, or images any ‘obscene material,’ ‘vulgar words’ or ‘fighting words’ as those terms are defined in the law or by common decency.”

As is the practice with creating and changing rules, the final vote to revise these rules needs to wait 28 days and will take place at the May board meeting. Although unlikely, changes can still be made between the vote on Tuesday and the vote next month.