St. Albert’s business community believes there should be different standards for portable signs on St. Albert Trail compared to other areas of the city like business parks, according to the results of a recently released survey.
But despite conducting the survey and making public the results, the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce is not recommending any specific changes to how portable signs are legislated in St. Albert.
“We don’t think there should be [any recommendations],” said chamber president and CEO Lynda Moffat. “We were willing to do the work that needed to be done, so we went on a mission of researching what’s out there. I think it’s premature to be issuing anything except that our primary concern, except from the main thoroughfare in our city, is ensuring the successes of businesses and making sure they have what they need.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse was disappointed the chamber chose not to make recommendations or take a position based on the results.
“Their recommendation is to do nothing and work with them. They don’t want to take a position and upset anyone,” Crouse said. “They could set a powerful position if they chose to. Just take a particular position and start to set the tone. They see that as the mayor’s job or council’s job.”
Conducted in March, the survey asked all chamber members for their input on not just the issue of portable signs, but signage as a whole. A total of 202 members responded. The chamber also compiled examples of legislation governing portable signage from a dozen other municipalities.
Moffat said there were two interesting themes that emerged from the study — that businesses believe there should be different standards for St. Albert Trail compared to business parks and that making affordable permanent signage available could lead to a reduction in portable signs.
“I think, because the trail is our main thoroughfare through which people come here, they think we should take pride in its appearance,” Moffat said. “It’s quite an eyesore and it’s probably to the point [portable signs] are not serving a purpose anymore. They are almost starting to carry a negative connotation in the minds of several people who answered the survey.”
When the results were broken out between businesses that use portable signs and businesses that don’t, the results were markedly different. Of 49 businesses that completed the survey that use portable signs, 75.5 per cent believe portable signs on the trail are “necessary for businesses to prosper.” Of 151 businesses that don’t use portable signs, that number drops to 43.7 per cent.
Yet 59.1 per cent of portable sign users believe permanent signs could be used to enhance a business’ presence, compared to 89.7 per cent of non-users.
“Do the businesses really need portable signs or do they just use them because it’s easy?” Moffat said. “I thought the responses were very good.”
The chamber decided to conduct the survey last year after council, during budget deliberations in November, voted to increase the permit fee for portable signs by $100, instead of the $200 originally proposed.
Different municipalities have taken different approaches to regulating portable signs, from limiting them to a specific number on one property to requiring the signs to only feature a white background with black lettering. But Moffat noted not one single municipality surveyed — from Edmonton to Calgary to Stratford, Ont. — banned portable signs completely.
“There’s different, innovative ideas. We found our bylaw was severely lacking when compared to the others as far as having some restrictions placed on these signs.”
The chamber said it is willing to work with council to craft any new guidelines council feels necessary.
