The Smithers sign bylaw received its third reading at town council last night.
After hearing concerns from a local business owner, council balked at adopting the bylaw earlier this month. Staff tweaked the bylaw to allow some types of window decals and materials of the signs themselves.
Mayor Taylor Bachrach says they ended up meeting the business owner somewhere in the middle and will now allow window decals of smaller size.
“I think the changes we made made the bylaw better, so we definitely appreciate that. In terms of the changes we made to try to improve the character of signs – I don’t think the concerns were necessarily addressed and at a certain point we just have to agree to disagree.”
The bylaw will aim to bring businesses into line with the towns alpine theming by laying out guidelines for signage that require them to be made of either metal, wood or glass. LED reader boards and neon tubing are mostly banned with a few exceptions. Regulations for the total number of signs per business and size have been updated.
“There is a sense among council that we’ve really worked on it diligently and looked at all the possible issues and made some deliberate decisions on a number of things and I think that folks are feeling like what we have is a solid bylaw that will serve the community well.”
Bachrach says Council is ready to adopt the bylaw at its next meeting.