Palm Beach seeks to restrict advertising signs on vehicles

Proposal would bar panels of material added to the body.

Stricter advertising rules could be coming to Palm Beach.

The Town Council directed its two-member Ordinances, Rules and Standards Committee Tuesday to study the use of signs on vehicles to promote business. The Police Department has suggested a potential ban.

“Specific ally, panels of any material that are added to any por tion of a vehicle which extends from, attaches to, or adds to the original vehicle body would be included in the prohibition,” the staff wrote to council members. “Painted and magnetic signs applied flush to commercial vehicles which identifies the business owner or lessees would remain permitted.”

T h e r e c o mmenda t i o n stems from incidents during Memorial Day weekend when police spotted a pickup truck displaying large advertising signs mounted on its bed parked along the 300 block of South Ocean Boulevard.

Current town code does not prohibit signs on vehicles to promote business.

In January, Sweet Spot ice cream shop owner Thomas Tomas was fined for chaining his bike — with a mounted surfboard sign advertising his business — to the public bike rack near Midtown Beach. He was found in violation of town code prohibiting posting or placing advertising on private or public property without consent of the owner.