The city of Fremont is planning to crack down on realtors who are littering the streets with their signs as if they’re spam mail.
Timothy Crofton has built his real estate business, thanks in part to 100 signs that are scattered all over town on any given weekend.
However, city leaders say relators must restrain their marketing strategy.
“My wife and I, we work our butts off,” said Crofton. “Instead of having one listing, we have 30 listings. By far more than anybody else.”
Crofton says every time he lists a home, his clients count on an aggressive marketing campaign to get the best price. That includes displaying all 100 of these signs in one weekend.
“It looks like a lot but when you spray these all over Fremont, it’s not that many signs,” he said.
However, for councilmember Raj Salwan, the signs have been a problem.
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“We see these rampant signs everywhere and they are out of control,” Salwan said. “[People are] tripping, falling, wheelchairs don’t have proper access.”
They’re also becoming an eyesore, especially when the signs are lined up along the historic mission San Jose.
“You want the beauty of the mission to show up. When you have like a bazillion signs everywhere, you kind of lose focus like what’s all this,” Salwan said.
Therefore the city if proposing tougher, new rules.
“Instead of 20 to 30 signs, it will be 4 signs, and you can only have one sign at an intersection so that will limit the signs,” said Salwan. “There will be no signs allowed near historic structures.”
Crofton says the city of Fremont has already fined more than $29,000 for his excessive signs.
“It really appears to be targeted directly at me and I just don’t think it’s fair,” Crofton said.
Salwan says the new rules will be enforced by code enforcement officers as well as a group of volunteers, who will likely be realtors themselves.
Crofton says his clients aren’t pleased with the new city rules and says he is looking into other marketing tactics.
