Although it is expected to be unpopular, the ruling is needed to protect Central Otago's ''natural beauty'', council leaders have said.
The council has this month sent about 150 letters to business owners and event organisers, reminding them of the rules around signage in the district plan.
The letters say non-complying signage or hoardings must be removed within 10 days of receiving the letter.
The deposit for an application for a consent for a sign would be either $500 or $2000, depending on the type of application and whether it required a hearing, council executive manager planning and environment Louise van der Voort said yesterday.
The council's rules say signs cannot be attached to a business, wall, fence, vehicle or trailer if it advertises something not related to that business.
Also, only certain signage was permitted for advertising events, Ms van der Voort said at last week's Maniototo Community Board (MCB) meeting.
Signs were allowed three months before and one week after an event but were not permitted at other times, she said.
She said it was important to note a 3sq m sign was permitted on a rural property, providing it related to that property.
''Advertising hoardings, however, are non-complying, so need to go to the hearings panel for decision. The panel can either approve or decline the application.''
MCB member Sue Umbers said during the MCB meeting many Maniototo residents were upset at having to take down signage or hoarding and at how much it might cost to make a sign compliant.
Ms van der Voort said during the meeting the council had been meaning to more firmly apply the rules around signage ''for years'' and knew clamping down on illegal signage and hoardings now ''was not going to be very popular''.
But she said the reason for the tougher stance was because ''the community value the landscape and rural amenity, and so we are trying to avoid a proliferation of hoardings in our landscape''.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said it was ''a very fine line between signs being OK and being visual pollution ... Council needs to occasionally remind people, and even have non-complying signs removed, otherwise we run the risk of losing our natural beauty to a landscape of advertising''.
