Highways and parks crews from the Town of Brookhaven removed illegal signs from public right-of-ways, roadsides, utility poles and other locations. The signs were removed because they were in violation of the Town’s Illegal Road Sign law.
In 2014, The New York State Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower court decision that had ruled the town law was unconstitutional. The court said the Brookhaven sign code “directly serves the town’s valid interests in traffic safety and aesthetics.” The decision stemmed from an appeal filed by a Holbrook business after the company pleaded guilty in 2012 to charges that it had illegally posted advertising signs on public land along a town highway in 2011.
In 2014, the proposed strengthening of Brookhaven’s existing code to ban all signs on town public right-of-ways was unanimously adopted by the Town Board. Since its adoption, the town’s Department of Waste Management has collected thousands of illegal signs.
On May 2, 2014, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico, Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro and members of the Brookhaven Town Board welcomed a fleet of dump trucks filled with illegally placed signs.
