The Township of Centre Wellington finally has a sign bylaw in place, but it appears it will be treated as a work in progress for the time being.
The bylaw was passed by council at regular session on Monday, July 12, preceeded by a pair of delegations that wished to make their concerns heard once more before the bylaw was voted on.
Under the new comprehensive sign bylaw, the section that deals with mobile signs drew the most concern. Mobile signs had been allowed to be placed year round with the same message - now the new bylaw will force that message to be changed that time to just three months.
Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce president Michael Weinstein said the Chamber is willing to work with the township where the bylaw is concerned, but he's hoping there won't be too much collateral damage done in the meantime.
"We know that no bylaw is prefect, and we expect that this one will have to evolve," he said. "Chamber members know that it can't be a free-for-all, but signs and advertising like this does work. The question is how can we get everything working together."
Weinstein said a lot of small local businesses rely on mobile signs to get the word out about their products and services because in some cases they're not always dealing with a favourable landlord - one who won't put up a permanent sign for the tenants to advertise their businesses on.
"We agree that we need to make the visibility reasonable, and nobody wants this to turn into a situation like you have on the Highway 24 corridor in Cambridge," he said.
Ward 4 Councillor Fred Morris believes the township needs to send a strong signal that they are not unfriendly to business, as Weinstein said the perception was in the business community. Morris was looking for a balance between happy business people getting their message out and keeping the surrounding community attractive.
Another point of concern was the fee schedule, and Morris was pleased to see a slight reduction in the fees over the first two years. In the first year, a mobile sign can be used for six months going every other month at a cost of $75 per month. In year two, that usage goes down to four times per year, while the fee rises to $100 a month with just three uses in year three. That was designed to be a transitional period, Morris said, helping businesses move towards the use of permanent signs.
"If there is no reduction in exposure, there's no incentive to move towards a permanent sign," he said. "We know this is going to be a work in progress, and we want to be fair to businesses."
In his report to council before the bylaw vote, chief building official Bob Foster said that there would likely be a progress report before council within the year on the sign bylaw, adding there would likely be items come up for council to address. But Ward 5 Councillor Walt Visser said the township should move ahead with the bylaw and work things out on the fly.
"We need to put this in place and see how it works out," he said. "If things about it don't work, they can be changed. But it's been so long that we've been without one, it has been hard for staff to enforce the rules. It will be nice for us to have this in place."
The bylaw passed with Visser, Morris and Kirk McElwain voting in favour of it, while Ward 3 Councillor Bob Foster was opposed. Councillors Shawn Watters and Ron Hallman were absent from the meeting.