New Westminster city council has given a green light for directional signage for Rexall Drugs despite concerns from area residents.
Some uptown residents expressed concern about Rexall Drugs request for a variance to the sign bylaw for its business at 700 Sixth St. The city’s bylaw states that there can be no more than two signs at the entrance or exit of a parking area (the applicant proposed three), signs can’t be more than 1.0 square metres (the applicant is proposing 3.0 square metres) and there can be no more than one sign for each street frontage of a buildings (the building currently has several signs and requested three additional directional signs.)
Council received correspondence from a number of uptown residents opposed to the request for additional signage at the drug store.
“I think this sign business is getting a bit out of hand,” said one resident in an email to the city. “A while ago we were asked about another variance for Wal-Mart … Keep on going like this and our city will look like Las Vegas shortly. Please don’t let this get out of hand.”
A representative from Rexall Drugs told council on Feb. 23 that the variance is for three directional parking signs to help customers access the store’s free underground parking.
Council approved the sign variance.
“In the end, the signs that were approved are already up there. They are just going to change the colour of the signs,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote.
“It’s just about the parking directional signs. We did receive a lot of letters from the neighbourhood. The letters were mainly complaining about the big Rexall sign at the front, which was not a part of what we were doing. We were just dealing with the directional parking signs. I think people were taking this as an opportunity to express their frustration about the big sign at the front even though that isn’t what we were considering.”
