The plight of a sign builder in Smithers seemed to change council’s mind on adopting an alpine theme sign bylaw.
Last night council repealed the adoption of the bylaw, holding it back to a third reading for a chance to make some changes.
“Basically what we did was back up the bus a bit, take another run at it – make some changes,” says Mayor Taylor Bachrach. “We’ve asked staff to address parts of the bylaw that could be a little more clear,” specifically regarding signs outside of the downtown core, among other little tweaks with lettering on signs and the ‘word smithing’ of the bylaw.
At issue for the sign builder Extreme Signs and Stripes was some of the rules around what was allowed in the lettering that would hurt their business regarding lettering, and the lack of clarity they saw in the bylaw, and also what they say is a ‘lack of public feedback.’ They presented council with a slide show of signs that would potentially be a ‘fail.’
Mayor Taylor Bachrach says over the last year they’ve been crafting the bylaw in the public interest.
“What we heard from the community is that they support the alpine theme, they want that to remain an integral part of our downtown,” says Bachrach.
Council, and staff, will also look at changing some of the variance costs for signs that don’t adhere to every aspect of the proposed bylaw.
“At out our next meeting, hopefully we’ll have some new wording…and maybe we can adopt it…”