The city is looking into laying out exactly where municipal election signs can and cannot be put up on city property. On Monday, council members asked city staff to look into creating a list or map of permitted sign locations throughout the city.
“Instead of having a bunch of requirements about, you can put a sign here if it meets A, B, C and D, saying these are the defined areas you can have a sign; they’re allowed on this avenue on the north side and this boulevard on the west side,” says Councillor Dylan Bressey.
Bressey first brought up the idea on August 21st and says he believes there’s a lot of confusion surrounding the current bylaw in place which he experienced first hand.
“During the municipal campaign a couple of years ago, this was something that my team spent a lot of time figuring out where sign locations could go. We tried our best to follow city bylaws, we spent hours and hours figuring it out and we still got a bunch of signs wrong.”
Currently, candidate signs are not allowed within 500 metres of a construction zone which Bressey says adds to the confusion as construction zones can change on any given day. He also believes the current sign guidelines are causing extra, unneeded work for city staff.
“Because so many people were getting them wrong occasionally there were complaints that staff was receiving about signs being in incorrect locations. They had to contact the candidate, get the candidate to move them, check to see if the candidate did that and it was just a lot of time for them as well as for the candidates.”
City staff will now take a look at the bylaws and bring a possible solution back to council members at the committee level at a later date.