Council Pulls the Plug on Electronic Sign Request
Prince George, B.C.- An application to have a two sided electronic advertising sign in the BCR has been nixed by Prince George City Council.
The applicant asked for a variance to the City of Prince George Sign Bylaw to allow the sign to be 10.2% of the ground floor area of the principal building. The bylaw only allows signs to be 2% of that floor space. The request also asked to have the actual sign’s size to be increased from 15 square meters to 18.5 square meters, allow an animated sign in a general industrial zone, and increase the maximum number of signs per site from 1 to 4.
The location of the proposed sign is the northeast corner of a building that is located at Railway road and Highway 97.
Administration cites a number of concerns, including impacts to the aesthetics along the 97 corridor, also, the proposed signs would be “adjacent to a driver decision point (i.e. intersection of Railway Road and Highway 97) which has the potential to distract drivers and create a hazardous situation” reads the report from staff.
“It is the corridor, and the rate of speed people are travelling that worries me” said Councillor Susan Scott explaining why she could not support the variance requests.
Mayor Hall says the sign bylaw is “very antiquated” and he looks forward to the bylaw being updated to reflect the new technology available in signage today.
This is the second request for an electronic sign in the BCR this month. At the last meeting of Council, a request by a business in that area was denied. At that time, the City noted such signs were not allowed in industrial areas, and that there are concerns about animated signs being a distraction for drivers on highway 97.
Comments
I love how the city has these stupid variances , until election time, and then you are allowed to put up displays anywhere and everywhere. All rules go out the window.
Distractions seriously ? people are to busy going 90 to 100 km an hour onto the bridge and all the way through the bcr site and then 120 up the hill . I drive it daily. People have no respect for speed limits anymore. Its a speedway ,The sign wont even be noticed. Get a grip city ,the hazard is already there.
I guess they didn’t make big enough political donations during the last city election. There are large electronic signs up all over town. 3 big ones I can think of right off the top of my head at at Pedin Hill, 20th and Victoria st, 5th and Union street.
Speaking of distraction, how about that BIG flashing sign at corner of 20th and Victoria??? across from McD.. REALLY bright after dark
That crappy sign is an issue and never should have been allowed. It is poor quality and changes too frequently which has been startling. I think that it gave me a migraine at one point.
I work on the corridor where these signs were going to go. I’m not sure what the esthetics are that the city staff is talking about. Of course city staff is Wells. BCR isn’t a simple industrial area on the 97 corridor. It is commercial properties serving industrial users. Get away from the corridor and there is more industrial activity. As far as any comments regarding the speed at which traffic moves through the corridor, that is not up to the businesses to enforce. It’s up to the city, the province and the RCMP to enforce. If you speed on that corridor, get a ticket and hopefully you’ll stop speeding. I’m tired of hearing councillors talking about these signs as animated signs. They are not animated. They quickly change from one sign to another based on a formula set out by the highways ministry at a light level also set by ministry regulation. There is only one distracting animated sign in this town. It is at CN Centre. That sign is right out on the roadway and it is animated. They use swipe transitions and animated scenes which seems to me to be totally hypocritical. A total bias of 2 sets of rules. One for the city and one for the rest of us.
I agree, but any sign near a highway corridor that flashes, is bright, is a distraction to drivers and should not be allowed. We’ve got way too many distractions already for today’s inexperienced drivers.
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