OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – You may have seen bright yellow signs advertising an OKC Gun Show event happening this weekend at the State Fairgrounds, but the City says while the event brings in a lot of money, those signs are illegal.

John Doyle has seen the Gun Show signs popping up all over the metro recently.

Doyle said this has been a longtime issue.

He has been filing Action Center complaints since the summer, but it wasn’t until October that he finally heard back about it.

Doyle tweeted about the issue of the signs October 5, in which OKC Mayor David Holt responded, “I’m not sure the issue has ever been raised with me that I can recall, but I just got off the phone with the relatively new president of the Fair, and he readily agreed to begin talking to all users about the illegal signs advertising their events. We’ll see how it goes.”

The Gun Show typically puts on events every month.

Come November, Doyle said he didn’t notice a Gun Show sign anywhere.

As the Gun Show’s December event rolls around, though, they’ve started popping up again.

“All these pop up like mushrooms,” said Doyle. “From the perspective of visitors coming to town, they’ll see all these signs all over the city and they’ll wonder, why are the streets littered so much with all these signs and it’s just a nuisance.”

The City of Oklahoma City Director of Public Information and Marketing, Kristy Yager told KFOR signs like the gun show’s are illegal because not only are they an eyesore but they’re a traffic hazard.

“The signs cause blight and can be dangerous distractions for drivers,” said Yager.

When it’s in the City’s street right of way. That’s the pavement and medians, of course, but it also includes land on either side of the street. Even if the sign is in front of your own business, it can’t be placed in the right of way. The width of the right of way depends on the width of the street: The wider the street, the wider the right of way on either side. Generally speaking, land between the curb and the sidewalk is in the right of way. On most streets, the right of way is a 12-foot strip on either side of the street.

City of Oklahoma City Ordinance on Illegally Placed Signs

Other “No Sign Zones” include:

• Any area between a curb and a sidewalk
• Any telephone pole, electric pole, lamp post, street sign or parking meter
• Street medians
• Drinking fountains
• Park roads and park property

Yager said the City typically receives 1,100+ complaints about illegally placed signs a year.

The City has four part-time employees who pick up thousands of signs annually.

The City’s goal is compliance rather than a citation.

The fairground staff is notifying event promoters to make sure they know advertising their events in the City right of way is against the City ordinance.

“If promoters ignore requests from the fairgrounds, fairground administrators could decide to stop leasing space to them,” said Yager.

News 4 reached out to Claude Hall’s Original OKC Gun Show for comment.

A representative said they’ve been running the Gun Show for 45 years and have never had this issue before.

He said their main source of advertisement comes from these signs.

He wants to work with the State Fairgrounds as well as the City, so he plans on having someone go by the sign sites and remove them.