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October 17, 2013
Bullish on the real news in the Monashee
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2012:
village of lumby
a sign odyssey
Did the system of sign bylaw enforcement go rogue? Perhaps it was instigated by the public service?
For simplicity’s sake, let’s call this scenario, HAL.
Perhaps another cautionary tale by Don Elzer
April 17, 2012
I did a double take when I read an article on the topic in a Vernon newspaper, which outlined the signage issue as told to them by Mayor Kevin Acton and Lumby Public Market chairperson Murray August.
But being at the Village Council meeting, I witnessed a very different set of stories from what has been shared with the public thus far.
It’s true that the Lumby Public Market had to remove its promotional sign because it did not conform with existing village bylaws. However at the meeting, council didn’t discuss the public market sign dilemma at any great length, in fact Councilor Lori Mindich had to scramble at the very end of the signage discussion to get a guarantee that the Mayor and council would solve the issue and address the needs of the market by next council meeting. If she had not made her point, the market may have been left completely ignored.
Most of the council discussion related to Councilor Nick Hodge and his slide presentation about cleaning up the signs and signage in the village. Hodge was inspired after seeing Ministry of Highway signs that direct motorists to an array of services in Merritt.
“We could use more comprehensive signage,” he said referring to Highway 6.
Hodge is suggesting that the provinces standardized signs which have the blue background with white icons be enhanced and clustered at the gateways to Lumby in order to better direct visitors.
“Currently, individuals in Lumby have applied for their own blue and white signs so we have about eight of them instead of just one,” said Hodge.
Hodge believes one sign would provide a means to update visitor directional information and would clean up the visual landscape by removing the mix of different signs. It was at this point where the meeting got real interesting. Area D, Director Rick Fairbairn broke protocol and requested to be heard by council on the subject.
Fairbairn exposed a certain question to council. If indeed the “village” is pondering a sign cleanup of sorts, then why are business signs on Highway 6 outside of the village, being ordered taken down in advance of a plan?
And further to that question, how does village council influence signage in Area D?
Now I’m not pretending to know how this whole problem of signs unfolded exactly, and it seems convoluted; but perhaps someone may have complained to the “village” about businesses advertising along the highway outside of the village and that those signs may be competing against Lumby businesses in the “village”. It seems then that this complaint was then relayed from the Village of Lumby to the Regional District which then exercised their Area D sign bylaw which currently indicates that a sign can only be placed on property if it advertises a product or activity physically taking place on that property.
But let’s thicken the plot – one source close to the village inner workings tells me that there was no public complaint, which means that the system of enforcement went rogue and may have been instigated by the public service. For simplicity’s sake, let’s call this scenario, HAL.
HAL’s preemptive strike of enforcing the bylaw in Area D was stealth in everyway – it was in fact a form of visual cleansing which resulted in businesses located in the “village” and Area D to remove their unlawful signs.
Only after the fact did HAL realize that it launched a lose – lose situation for businesses on both sides of the mythic boundary.
This ripple effect that turned into a back-eddy of bureaucratic embolisms got Fairbairn’s dander up and caused him to heed a warning to council.
“Maybe we should get rid of the sign bylaw all together in Area D and do what Area E did – let people govern signage themselves – without government”.
I sat politely and quietly, taking notes – but inside I was yelling yippee-ki-yeh for the Director.
At that moment, council in unison seemed to outwardly worry about signs in the wild west and in particular the difference between Cowboy’s and Indians.
Mayor Acton expounded, “We wouldn’t want what they have in West Kelowna – all those billboards by Westbank First Nations”.
The audience seemed perplexed at the Mayor’s comparison.
There’s one other notion that needs to be carefully examined through all this small town sign fatique - and that might be the role of a Bylaw Officer as a possible instrument of HAL. Is this position currently tasked with responding to public complaints; or is it tasked with keeping an eye on all things that might contravene a bylaw in advance of a complaint?
It would be dire, if our local governments were knowingly or unknowingly constructing an enforcement “business” in this rural area. After all, many of us wonder if HAL cam be trusted given all those problems in 2001.
Within all of this directional subject matter, council still seemed to be a disconnected between the “now” and the “later”.
Businesses need to promote themselves “now” not later. If you remove the signs “now” and tell the businesses, “don’t worry - this will all be better “later,” then that will be pretty much a lost leader, because those businesses might not be around “later”.
From what I can guess, the Public Market sign is now acting as a diversion for a much larger sign and bylaw issue – which I might suggest is in need of a sign. A sign that says “Over-regulation and Enforcement over a Non-Issue is bad for everyone.”
Good night HAL.
Good night Don.
(30)
The topic of local signage has now reared its head in the village and in Area D.
So far, all public attention has focused on the Lumby Public Market sign being removed from the landscape, however very little attention is being placed on the fact that other signs have been ordered removed from the Highway 6 corridor in Area D.
