Beautification Committee
The St. Margaret's Bay area is one of Atlantic Canada's most scenic areas. People travel from all over to visit its natural beauty and take in the scenic drive that surrounds it. These visitors and the 'experience' they derive play a significant role in all the lives of businesses and residents that make up the surrounding communities.
Recent public hearings, particularily those in response to 'by-law' changes by local development, have served to highlight significant issues with respect to that scenic beauty. One of these issues is sign pollution! There is a proliferation of signs, put up mainly by local businesses, that, in a percentage of the public's view, detract from that experience. With continued development in the area this can only get worse! This issue is heightened by the lack of adequate and enforced signage by-laws.
In response to this, the St. Margaret's Bay Chamber of Commerce Beautification (Signage) Committee is reviewing the signage options available to our local businesses and, with the input and help of all interested parties, will try to provide recommendations that meet the often conflicting needs regarding the whole issue. As part of this, we received feedback from both our membership, other local businesses and residents, in the form of an on-line survey. The results of this survey are available below.
(Update Oct 24, 2009)
Phase 1 of the Pole Sign Removal Program - Removal of 'out-of-business', derelict and non-local pole signs is now completed (from Exit 4 to end of Black Point and all of the Peggy's Cove loop).
The final stage, removal of all the rest of the pole signs, will only be done in concert with HRM's Community Visioning process and By-Law updating when we hope to have a better and more easily accessed Signage ByLaw in place as an alternative to the use of pole signs. We will keep everyone informed as we move forward.
(Update May 26 2009)
Since Jan, the committee now has particpication from the following organizations:
- SMBCC
- HABA
- Chester Municipal Chamber of Commerce (CMCC)
- St Margaret's Bay Regional Development Toursim Assoc (SMBRDTA)
- Aspotogan Heritage Trust
- Bluenose Coast
In March, the Committee submitted a joint request for $20K each for SMBCC, CMCC and SMBRDTA to Judy Streatch. It also met with the local utilities to plan a staged removal of signage attached to utility poles. This will be done in 2 phases. The first will be to remove all the signs from businesses no longer operating as well as broken and damaged signs. The second, coordinated with alternatives and by-law updates, will be to remove the remaining signs. Phase 1 is anticipated to begin late spring to early summer.
A series of articles will be coming out in the Masthead News.
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