Vote no.

Vote for so-and-so.

Utah's landscape is littered with campaign signs. But none has raised more of a fury than five signs in Sandy. And they don't say a word about voting.

"They're not campaign signs," insists Nick Duerksen, Sandy's spokesman.

A group of residents says hooey to that.

The signs: Each covers more than 100 square feet. They line Sandy's Ski Connect Road, the thoroughfare that runs adjacent to an out-of-use gravel pit.

They depict five separate images: an overhead view of the proposed development there, the store fronts of a Super Wal-Mart and a Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, a row of smaller shops and a set of condos.

Save Our Communities - the residents group that forced a citywide vote on the zoning that allows the gravel pit to be developed - sees the signs as a message to voters. If so, the size is breaking election laws.

"We definitely believe they are in code violation," said Robyn Bagley, a spokeswoman for the group.

Campaign signs can cover a maximum of only 32 square feet.

Kelly Casaday, who represents a consortium of gravel-pit developers and retailers, argues the signs aren't campaign signs and are not subject to the size restrictions.

"It all got approved," he said. "I think I'm playing by the rules."

The city agrees, saying that the signs don't fall into a campaign category because they make no mention of voting or of support for the project. Duerksen said they fall into a category of "community signs" meant to inform people. Past examples of such signs are those that tell residents about registration for youth sports.

"We see them as informational," Duerksen said.

Casaday does concede that the signs' information involves the upcoming election. They show what the Sandy City Council authorized when it approved a new zone for the 107-acre pit nearly a year ago. That zoning is at stake as voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether the change sticks or reverts to the old zone, which does not allow big-box developments.

"As a community service, this is what [voters] will be voting for," Casaday said.

Bagley said Casaday's explanation sounds like the definition of a campaign sign.

Confusing the issue even more, city officials believe the signs also can be defined as "project-development" messages - the kind builders commonly put up signs to show passers-by what is proposed for an area. Duerksen says that means the pit can display as many as five since that is the number of land developments within the project.

Bagley believes Sandy is helping out one side of the referendum debate by allowing the signs.

"You've got Sandy City assisting a private entity making a private gain," she said.