Election signs limited to certain areas

You could see fewer and fewer political signs lining Prince George streets during future elections.

City Council passed the first three readings to alter two older law and create a new one at Monday night’s meeting. These limit election signs to just 14 areas around the city, ones that city staff picked carefully based on popularity in past elections and safety factors like intersection sight distances, and sight triangles, underground infrastructure (i.e. irrigation).

It’s a double-edged sword for new candidates. All those running will have similar sign expenses and amounts of exposure, but Mayor Lyn Hall knows these are a great way to promote. New names are now going to have to really think outside the box.

“How can I get my message out? How can I get my name out? How can I get my face out into the community? So, us doing this tonight, it’ll just be the start of more creativity and more innovation by particular candidates.”

Frank Everitt was the only councillor to oppose some of the changes. He’s concerned reducing the number of signs will deter new candidates from running.

“All of the incumbents have got name recognition out there so (new candidates) will have to either go to radio or television to put more money that you may not have in order to run so you limit the amount of people that can afford to run,” he says, “it also takes away business from the sign companies within our community that depend on elections to make good money.”

These laws don’t apply to signs on highways 16 or 97, nor do they it affect what residents from putting up signs on private properties, however, there are new size restrictions: signs on municipal properties cannot exceed 3.0 m² (32 ft.²). Signs on residential properties will be limited to 1.5 m² (16 ft.²).

These limits also pertain to referendum signs, including the upcoming vote regarding the new Four Seasons Pool and Fire Hall #1 on October 28th.

Adoption will be discussed at a later meeting.