Hello BCSA,
We would like to encourage you to attend City of Vancouver’s Town Hall meeting to discuss the upcoming Sign Bylaw update taking place on Wednesday, October 5th from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. Please join us at the Cityscape meeting room on the 5th floor of the Engineering building (507 West Broadway at Cambie). We believe it is critical for the City to hear the Vancouver business owners’ perspective on the importance of signage.
Why is it important for business owners to participate?
There have been dramatic changes in the cityscape and big advancements in the sign technology since City of Vancouver’s Sign Bylaw was first adopted in 1989:
- Landmark on-premise signs today play a central role in the community’s overall identity.
- Digital signs are now central to the advertising and information strategy of many public and private institutions. Retailers in particular have advanced their use as a competitive advantage, by using the signs as a foundation for an information system for advertising specific products and services.
- Urban wayfinding and identity sign systems have exploded over the last ten years with most major North American cities and even smaller towns developing vehicular, pedestrian and wayfinding programs as part of their portfolio on important streetscape elements to support tourism, improve the city brand and make cities and towns more livable place.
City of Vancouver’s Planning Department is looking for preliminary feedback on how Vancouverites feel about advertising signs in the city. Representatives from the BC Sign Association will be present at the meeting to provide technical insight into signage. At the same time, we would like to encourage participation from members of chambers of commerce to provide input on the importance of signage to your businesses and to the vibrancy of your communities.
The Sign Association of Canada and BC Sign Association support proper and consistent enforcement of sign codes. With the onset in popularity of digital signs comes a need for effective regulation of the technology. In the context of this Town Hall meeting, what is concerning to us is that sometimes a bad experience with one or two bad digital sign leads certain vocal opponents to asking for a complete ban or severe, costly restriction on digital signs. What we would like to happen is to discuss effective means of regulation and also the importance of the new sign technologies to business’ and community vibrancy.
Please RSVP by Sept 28th with Hayley Rowlands at Hayley.Rowlands@vancouver.ca
Please let us know if you have any questions about this.
We hope to see you there!
Kind regards,
Carlene Fetterly
BC Sign Association President