CANMORE – New entry signs for Spring Creek Mountain Village on Main Street in Canmore were rejected by the Canmore Planning Commission on May 29 because of thier height.
Chair of the comission, Garney Baker, had harsh words for the municipality’s planning department after the application ended up in front of them after the signs were built without formal approval.
Baker called the situation a “debacle” and said regardless of what the commission does, he expects it to be the subjectof an appeal.
“I don’t know how this happened and I don’t really care how it happened, but it should never happen again,” he said. “This is a bad situation that we should not be in.”
While SCMV developer Frank Kernick said he would appeal the refusal to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, he noted it was a situation he was also surprised to be in.
Kernick said the design for the community sign has evolved since it was initially considered in the 2004 area redevelopment plan for his subdivision.
“They were part of a whole design process we went through with the Town of Canmore’s engineering department for a long period of time,” he said. “Everyone makes mistakes. I got an email to order the signs and timbers and we did. We all assumed the engineering process and advertising process we went through was the process we needed.”
As for the height of the signs, Kernick said they were designed to have an architectural feel and slightly overhang the intersection, meaning they need to be tall enough to allow larger trucks to drive through.
“There is a lot of rationale that went into the sign design and reviewed by myself and I assumed everyone at the Town had a look at it,” he said.
Planner Nathan Grivell presented the application to the board and the four variances for the height, number of signs, landscaping, and overall sign area.
“The Town favoured two locations for compliant signage – one on each side of the road instead of in the median as it allowed better street design,” Grivell said regarding the one variance.
The height allowed under the bylaw would have been two metres, whereas the actual sign ended up being more than five metres tall.
CPC board members Jeff Hilstad, Douglas Armstrong, Alissa English and Eric Young all expressed concern around the nature and size of that particular variance.
Hilstad and Young said they could accept the rationale to support all the variances, except the height.
“I think the sign is well designed and aesthetically fits the town, but they are too large,” Young said. “It is the height I cannot get past. Everything else I can see a way through it.”
The location of the signage was part of the overall street design, said manager of planning Alaric Fish. The intersection was part of a major $4 million road construction project last year to replace the aging infrastructure in the roadway and use the municipality’s new complete street design to create a more pedestrian and cyclist friendly streetscape.
The project occurred in 2017 while Kernick was developing the Malcolm Hotel, as he would also need to do deep utility work under the road and financial efficiencies were found by doing both projects at the same time.
According to the staff report, while the location was determined and SCMV was granted permission to install the foundations, there was still more work to do on the sign process, but the developer was mistakenly told to it could move ahead.
“Once the foundations were completed, a miscommunication within the Town planning department occurred and the developer was told construction of the sign could proceed without realizing that a full review of the proposed signage had been completed,” wrote Grivell in his staff report. “The Town acknowledges that there were communication issues and that SCMV’s actions were not ill intended.”
Public input into the sign’s design was sought after the fact, and Grivell said 65 submissions were received before CPC considered the application for approval.
“The majority of the public was opposed to the variances,” Grivell said. “The common concerns expressed included the applicant installing signs prior to approval, their size and variances.”
He said correspondence was received in favour of the sign’s design, including incorporating benches into their foundation. He said the signs exceed the design requirements for design quality, materials and details.
Spring Creek Drive resident Liz Baker spoke at the hearing against the location and height.
“As a resident on the street, it feels like I am in a gated community,” Baker said. “I don’t know if that was talked about in the planning.”
