Wheaton limits parked-car ads

Everyone's seen them. Cars or trucks parked near the street in front of ­businesses - or merely near them - carrying big bold advertising.

It's a way to get more bang for the buck in the restrictive world of signs in an around-the-clock fashion.

Wheaton officials would prefer businesses stick to the existing sign regulations, please.

City council members approved a zoning change Monday night prohibiting that sort of skirt-the-law advertising.

Businesses can have their vehicles, those necessary to their operations, on site during regular hours. But they've got to stick to the boundaries: Parking within striped spaces is required. And the vehicles must be operable.

Wheaton City Manager Don Rose said he's seen an increase in the number of businesses that leave trucks or cars in front, near the street, specifically to catch the eye of passing motorists. They tend to leave them there all day and night.

With the myriad other businesses in town obeying the sign laws, this closes the loophole that allowed the increasing number of roundabout violators, he said.