Archive

Garage owner seeks help for signage

February 25, 2015   ·   0 Comments

A local business owner asked Orangeville Council Monday night for help regarding signage for his garage.

Trevor Castiglione, owner of Busted Knuckle Garage, made a presentation regarding the unique situation he has found himself in.

“My shop is on John Street, and it’s very well hidden by the buildings around it,” explained Mr. Castiglione.

“I have a sign, but no one can see it if they are heading North or South. I currently have a purchased, portable sign out on the road, but I would like to pursue getting a permanent one.”

The sign bylaws and issues surrounding signage for businesses has not been a foreign issue when it comes to local business owners and the Town. In the previous term of Council, Fabricland’s owner found himself in an ongoing dispute with Council and the Bylaw Department regarding his need for additional signage on his building at Centennial and Riddell Road.

The biggest issue with Mr. Castiglione’s portable sign is two-fold: the first, is that business owners in town are required to obtain permits to post temporary signage, and secondly, that it being portable it also needs to move or change. The sign in question has been sitting at the edge of the road for the past three years.

His fear, is that the cost to implement new signage, as well as the permit he would have to obtain for the first two months of the year, would cost him too much money for a small business to handle.

“I can’t make the sign permanent until the end of May, so I would have to pay for the permits of that, as well as the cost of the sign,” he said.

“How is a small business supposed to do anything at such high costs? I am probably looking in the neighbourhood of $1500 for all of this.”

He asked council to step forward to find a way to help him in this situation, but was assured by Vern Douglas, Orangeville’s Director of Building and Bylaw Enforcement, that the costs are not as high as he fears.

“If Mr. Castiglione obtains the permits for the portable sign, it would be for two months at $100 a month,” said Mr. Douglas. “The application for a permanent sign is a one-time fee of $200.”

Councillor Sylvia Bradley addressed the business owner’s request, stating that there is not much that they could do in the way of helping with the costs.

“The Bylaw is what it is,” she said. “The cost for signs was determined some time ago, and there is nothing to negotiate with that. If it’s too expensive, that’s what everyone else pays.”

She added that the fact that Mr. Castiglione has had his portable sign up for three years, means he technically should owe three years’ worth of permits.

“It would be extremely lenient for us to be waiving the three years’ fees,” she said. “Mr. Castiglione needs to go through the Bylaw department and deal with them regarding this issue.”

Mayor Jeremy Williams commented that when the section of John Street where the shop is located was zoned, it was originally considered Commercial, but has since been rezoned to Industrial, affecting some of the signage.

“This is an unusual situation,” said Mayor Williams.

“You put forward a rule and don’t want to break it, but sometimes there are circumstances outside the typical Bylaw, regarding when it was put in. It is an industrial area, but it was thought to be commercial, so the original sign was put in under commercial standards.”

Councillor Don Kidd also added his thoughts that sometimes, a situation requires a little extra leniency.

“We all know that rules and laws are made to be enforced, but as anyone who watches Judge Judy knows, there are exceptions to most laws and leniency to the person,” said Councillor Kidd.

“We don’t want to get into the situation again that the previous council got into with Fabricland.

“If the sign Mr. Castiglione wants to put up meets the restrictions, laws and rules, I think Council should be happy.”

A motion was passed by Council that Mr. Castiglione should move forward and work with the Bylaw department to establish a suitable, permanent sign for Busted Knuckle Garage.

Readers Comments (0)