Friday, March 16, 2012

City of WL hosts public meeting to revise Sign Bylaw

From the City of Williams Lake:

The public is invited to have its say on proposed changes to Sign Bylaw No. 1121, which regulates signage in the City. A public information session on the proposed changes will be held Thursday, March 29 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.

The City’s internal Bylaw Review Advisory Committee (BRAC) have found several areas in which the bylaw is in need of an update or areas that the bylaw could be expanded to include other types of signage. The following list summarizes the changes proposed by the committee to Council to amend and create a new sign bylaw:

• Compliance with the Revised Official Community Plan (OCP) and Development Permit Guidelines;
• Restructuring for the Bylaw for ease of interpretation;
• Update the current preambles of the bylaw;
• Review the current fees to include a sign permit fee change;
• Broaden the Real Estate sign definition;
• Increase liability insurance coverage;
• Addition of provisions to allow offsite sign for Commercial/ Industrial Parks;
• Authorization of the Bylaw to include the Bylaw Officers;
• Authorization of fines by way of a fine schedule; and
• Include definition for sandwich board signs.

Read the brochure on the changes here

For more information, please contact:

Lilliana Dragowska - Planner
City of Williams Lake
Ph: 250-392-1798
Email: ldragowska@williamslake.ca

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Why does this and previous council always create more bylaws and never enforce existing ones? More red tape more legal ramblings. Under "Broaden the Real Estate sign definition" it states signs cannot impede visibility for motorists and must be only present at active listings and so on. Give me a break do you actually think a real estate professional, or anyone for that matter, would put a sign infront of a house that is not under contract or intentionally place it where it blocks a mororists view? What a joke! What a waste of time to write this crap. If it is in a bad spot for whatever reason why not just call the listing agent and voice your concerns instead of fining $100. The cost to develop these useless bylaws and the cost to enforce them never makes financial sense. Let start with some common sense!
Start to enforce existing bylaws before creating new ones. We still have houses in town with 10 vehicles and garbage in the front yard, we still have illigal suites, we still have home based businesses that are not zoned for what is taking place, we still have dogs that are not in fenced yards and none of this is actively enforced.
And on a related topic, we have all these bylaws for the public but why does the city not follow their own advice? As a downtown business owner the city bylaw tells me about exit signs, fire separations, fire alarm testing, and the list goes on. They even tell me that barricading my back door isn't allowed because in case of fire evacuation. I'm more worried about getting broken into then the remote chance of a fire. But back to my point.... why do I have to follow all these rules for myself and a few and customers when the city cannot even put in place a clorine sensor in a public pool that sees hundreds of kids per week?