The City is undertaking a refresh of its sign bylaw, the regulatory tool that defines almost every aspect of signage within Vancouver. As they note on their webpage, it’s an important opportunity to update regulations to reflect new technologies and trends. It’s also a great opportunity for public space advocates to have their say. Recent concerns around floating billboards in False Creek, outdoor projection advertising, or the longstanding issue of non-compliant billboards, make this a particularly important and timely engagement process.

The proposed engagement will unfold in two phases. The first phase focuses on business identification signs on private property. An online survey on this aspect of the regulations is now “live” and will be available until mid-September.

Following that, the second phase will look at outdoor advertising, focusing on advertising in public spaces, streets, and parks. It is aimed at developing a strategy for billboards, digital and transit shelter ads, as well as other advertising signs.

More information

• City of Vancouver – Sign Bylaw Update Webpage
• City of Vancouver – Online Survey
• Naoibh O’Connor, Vancouver Courier. Bylaw review a sign of the times. August 19, 2016

One of the new PavCo digital billboards. January 2012.

The new digital billboards installed around BC Place Stadium have been causing no end of headaches for nearby residents. The billboards are enormous – many times the size that would be allowed under the City’s Sign Bylaw – and they’re very bright. So bright, in fact, that one resident nearby told us that at 2:00am he can now read in his bedroom without any additional bedside lights whatsoever.

The signs were installed by PavCo, a Provincial Crown Corporation of the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, following the renovation of the stadium. PavCo replaced a set of older, smaller digital billboards in roughly the same location – plunking the new ones down, it would seem, with nary a whit of forewarning or consultation.

The previous digital billboards – pre-renovation. April 2008.

Needless to say, people living nearby – particularly on the west side of the stadium – have been trying to get the billboards removed for some time. They’ve even started a blog on the subject, documenting the challenges they’ve encountered.

The City is also irked by the gargantuan signage. The Mayor wrote a letter to Minister Pat Bell, but it appears not to have resulted in much change.

Unfortunately for the City, the fact that these signs are located on a provincially-owned property means there’s a bit of jurisdictional conundrum. From a legal perspective, it doesn’t appear that the City can enforce the provisions of the municipal Sign Bylaw as a means to reign in the nuisance factor. That being said, it can, and has, asked PavCo to act in the spirit of good neighbourly relations and respect the provisions of the Bylaw. (It’s worth noting that it’s not clear if the intent of the City’s initial request was to encourage PavCo to reduce the size of the signs, remove them all together, or simply to eliminate the increased nuisance that comes from the brightness of the signs at night. We hope it was more than just the latter).

In any event, the issue of the PavCo signs is to be considered at City Council next week. Councillor Geoff Meggs has put a motion on notice that will be considered on Tuesday, January 17 @ 9:30am. The motion asks for “a clear action plan by PAVCO to bring the signs into compliance with City standards.”

If you’ve got a position on this issue we encourage you to make your voice heard by emailing geoff.meggs [at] vancouver.ca and mayorandcouncil [at] vancouver.ca. The motion will likely be referred to one of Council’s Standing Committees later in the week. If this happens members of the public will also be able to make a short presentation in person (5 minutes).

Here’s the motion from Councillor Meggs:

BC Place Stadium Digital Signs
MOVER: Councillor Geoff Meggs
SECONDER:
WHEREAS

1. residents around BC Place Stadium continue to report significant negative impact from the installation of large digital signs at three locations around the stadium;

2. these signs were not installed with advance public consultation and public input, as would have been required on a similar project under City jurisdiction;

3. efforts by Mayor Robertson to resolve public concerns through correspondence with Minister Pat Bell have not produced results;

4. claims by PAVCO that they have mitigated the impact and reduced brilliance and intrusiveness of the lighting have not produced the improvements sought by residents.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council direct the City Manager to advise PAVCO that the City requires a clear action plan by PAVCO to bring the signs into compliance with City standards and processes, failing which the City will seek further remedies to reduce neighbourhood impact.

First up, in January, a series of smaller, pole-mounted, VANOC-created, street-signs appeared at key locations around the city. While helpful, they were clearly temporary – corrugated plastic – with type that was surprisingly small and difficult to read (especially the tone-on-tone colouration of the French script). On this note, one plus: the signs are bilingual, which is nice… though given the linguistic diversity in the city, perhaps other languages could also have been incorporated.

Things, thankfully, got better still. In late January and early February we had the pleasure of seeing the Engineering Department zip around town installing not one, but two different sizes of information signs. These wayfinding “kiosks” are part of a $200,000 program to provide enhanced directional signage for the Olympics and beyond. vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/documents/a14.pdf

Of the 200 or so signs installed through this program, the bulk are of the “small” kind — characterized by a narrow, two-sided, steel-framed information pillar that has directional arrows pointing to key sites, a larger neighbourhood map in the middle and a smaller context map of the entire city situated below. The entire pillar – about eight feet in height – is clearly adorned with an “i” for information, and the same information is reproduced on both sides. Again, English/French bilingual, though this time with far better contrast between text and background, making it easier to read.

To complement this, a number of larger information kiosks – about the size of the short end of a bus shelter – have also been installed. Like the smaller kiosks, they have the same style of metallic silver frame, but are adorned with larger, poster-size maps. Sadly, however, they are also adorned with bus shelter size corporate advertising. This is unfortunate and detracts from the important role of wayfinding devices. (Not to mention… has the City’s Olympic Legacy fund supported the creation of new advertising opportunities?)

Finally, to add to to the alphabet of wayfinding, we have a capital “T” that has now shown up to provide some other much needed clarity: yes, transit here! If you’ve ever tried to explain where some of our out-of-the-way transit stops are, you’ll know how helpful these signs (and related transit information) will be!

Post-script 1 (Feb 17): TransLink has now added some on-the-ground wayfinding support. Key SkyTrain stations around the city – like Yaletown Roundhouse (see below) – now have two or more people standing by to offer information and directions to wayward travelers.

Post-script 2 (Feb 19): We thought this might happen! One of the interesting omissions in the new Canada Line SkyTrain stations has been the absence of platform identification signage in the spot where people need it the most — at the foot of the stairs and escalators that take people down to platform level. We’ve had the chance to see folks get to the bottom of these bottom of the stairs and spin around trying to figure out what side of the platform that they should stand on. Evidentally TransLink has now noticed this as well – as evidenced by the sudden appearance of these make-shift signs: