Edible Life owner Carole Beaton finds herself stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place these days when it comes to the Town of Canmore's signage regulations.
Edible Life owner Carole Beaton finds herself stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place these days when it comes to the Town of Canmore's signage regulations.
The small business owner operates out of a location on Kananaskis Way in a mixed use building that was developed without any commercial signage.
She has been using an a-frame, or sandwich board, sign on the roadway to promote her business and provide some directional guidance to her tucked away location.
Beaton said the sign is directly responsible for driving 25 per cent of her daily sales, but it is also a sign type prohibited under the municipality's signage bylaw and, as a result, she has received warnings from the Town to take it down.
But she is doesn't want to take her sign down and has instead chosen to lobby local politicians and planners to do the work needed to update the bylaw and provide needed solutions for businesses like hers – which are off the beaten path.
“These bylaws are obviously a little old and have not been updated in a while,” Beaton said at a recent Chamber of Commerce Conversation Café on the issue. “I think they are pretty antiquated and should move with the times and how much Canmore has grown over the past 30 years.
“My business is outside the downtown core … we do not have the advantage of traffic on Main Street.”
She said she has approached other businesses propose building signage for the entire building, however, there was little interest in sharing the cost.
“I cannot afford to do that as just one business, so I use an a-frame sign on private property across the street,” she said, adding she is not the only tenant in a commercial building that struggles from lack of signage.
Manager of planning and development Alaric Fish provided an overview of the signage bylaw currently in place and which was approved in 1998 and updated in 2012.
He said the municipality would like to undertake an update of the regulations as part of the planned Land Use Bylaw update being done in 2018 and acknowledged there are aspects of it that are cumbersome for local businesses.
“Signage is really important and it is a critical piece of a business, so that is in our mind at the Town,” he said. “If you look around town, there are some fantastic signs and some not so awesome signage.
“We don't regulate signage because we are looking for rules and regulations or things to do.”
The reason for the prohibition on the a-frame sign, for example, said Fish, is to prevent what he would describe as an “arms race” for attention.
He said once one of these signs goes up on public property, more appear as businesses compete for each other in that space for the attention of potential customers.
“The Town regulates signage to establish a level playing field for all businesses, by establishing standards that attempt to balance the visibility of signage with an attractive appearance of the community,” Fish said. “Part of the reason for these rules is to make sure we level the playing field and there is a recognition we do not want Canmore to look like MacLeod Trail in Calgary, for example. We are trying to encourage signs of high quality and that have a positive contribution to the physical appearance of Canmore.”
Even though there are rules around signage, there are also variances that have been approved for signs that do not conform. Some businesses have even challenged the signage bylaw in front of Court of Queen's Bench and won – Sobeys for example.
For CanSign owner and operator Mike Halprin, sometimes he sees clients install non-conforming signage without permission and ask for the variance once planners catch on they've ignored the rules.
“There are a lot of things (in the bylaw) that to me do not really make sense,” Halprin said, adding his sign shop has been in Canmore for 39 years.
Other regulations that were questioned by businesses, at the meeting and over time, is the fact they: prohibit a white background on signage; cannot be internally lit; as well as limitations on size and placement that have challenged businesses.
Halprin said the prohibition of a white background has been particularly cumbersome to work with, especially when working with qualified professional graphic designers that are helping businesses create a brand and signage based on that branding.
Fish said the issue of hard to find locations and signage is something the planning department is aware of and the Bow Valley Trail area redevelopment plan process provided some insight into that issue.
“There are a number of businesses in harder to find locations and we can absolutely look at that,” he said.
Downtown Business Association executive director Beth Vandervoort said she is grateful the municipality is open to new ideas when it comes to signage, as it is an issue for businesses she represents.
She encouraged the Town and businesses to think of ways to promote their business in their location and attract customers creatively.
Vandervoort pointed to the creativity of Mountain Juice Café, for example, with a branded townie bike, and colourful umbrellas out front to catch the eye of downtown foot traffic that tends to not make it around the corner at the end of Main Street.
She said there are more business downtown now than there were in 2014 and many new business owners spend significant amounts of time on their signs before even realizing they have to apply for a development permit.
