Leslie Cook to City: Let there be signs!

Don't punish law-abiding businesses for the illegal antics of a few, Leslie Advertising owner Leslie Cook petitioned Sault Ste. Marie City Council last night.

Instead, Cook told councillors, as the City reviews its sign bylaw, sign companies like his should be allowed to get permits for mobile or portable signs just as they have for about 11 years.

When Cook went to the City offices a few weeks ago to get a permit for a portable sign at one of his client's establishments, he was flatly refused.

"They said they weren't issuing any more new permits until council reviewed the sign bylaws," Cook said.

The City is renewing existing permits but it hasn't issued any new ones, said City Commissioner of Engineering and Planning Jerry Dolcetti.

That decision is obviously going to seriously and negatively affect his business, said Cook.

And another thing. Cook wants the City to enforce its existing sign bylaw and remove illegal signs.

For example, Cook said, six months ago he reported an abandoned illegal sign.

Staff should have picked it up and impounded the sign but it still lays face down beside a canal, Cook says.

"City staff actually moved it to cut the grass," he told councillors. "Now it's actually on Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority property.

The City's current bylaw says signs must be safe and in good repair.

The bylaw was passed 11 years ago and Cook says it has been working well.

The bylaw governs portable signs on public lands.

It says that any portable sign that even touches public land must have a permit.

To obtain a permit, applications are submitted to relevant City departments for comments.

If a such a sign was deemed safe, a special permit allowing it would be issued.

"The problem is not with the bylaw," Cook told City councillors. "It's with enforcement."

Cook used several other examples to illustrate his point.

"One problem is that we only have one bylaw enforcement officer for all the City bylaws," said Dolcetti.

That officer enforces all City bylaws, including minimum standards for buildings, long grass issues, dogs running at large, people feeding pigeons and placement of portable signs on City property.

Cook has been in the portable sign business for 33 years.

He's one of the good ones, said Dolcetti.

He gets his permits, he takes care of his signs and he makes sure they are nice.

That's not the case for every portable sign owner, though.

At this time, the City has no idea how many illegal signs are on Sault Ste. Marie public property but he's taking steps to find out without further burdening the bylaw officer.

Summer students are currently taking inventory of signs on City property and their list will be cross-referenced with permits issued to see how many are illegal.

A towing company has been retained to haul away illegal signs if need be, but Dolcetti said the City has only had to resort to that a few times.

It would rather work with sign owners and make sure the signs are both safe and appealing and therefore permitted, rather than take them away.

Dolcetti said that enforcement of the portable sign bylaw is complicated because it takes time to identify and contact the owners of the signs in many cases.

Cook said the existing bylaw now allows for the City to pick up illegal portable signs without notice or negotiation and the City should be doing that.

"These unsafe and unprofessional signs make it tough on all of us in the business," he said. "They make the whole industry look bad."

That's something that bothers Cook on several levels.

He's very proud of his business and feels the signs meet an important need for businesses.

He also feels that unprofessional portable signage is endangering the whole industry by bringing Council closer to the idea of simply prohibiting such signs on public land under any circumstances.

Elimination of the ability to place such a sign on public property would, he said, put him out of business and eliminate a necessary component of advertising that many small businesses rely on.

Council directed that Cook's concerns about difficulties getting portable sign permits be referred to City staff for review and a report back to City Council.

Council also directed that appropriate staff meet with Cook as soon as possible to come to some agreement on his latest permit request.