By Kayla Bruch

Sign rules source of concern for car dealerships

Dec 15, 2014 | 5:57 AM

Prince Albert will be revisiting its portable sign rules after the issue made its way to the front burner again at city council.

On Dec. 8, council referred the portable sign bylaw back to administration for further review and report. Proposed changes to the bylaw were the subject of debate at that meeting and it brought a representative from one dealership to the podium at last Monday’s meeting.

Mark Doell has worked at Prince Albert’s Mann-Northway Auto Source for around 14 years. Doell was disappointed that after all the money the dealership has brought into the city, it faced possible fines.

“When this came to light about [how] I was going to get fined for putting my flags up, I didn’t know what to do, I talked to our head office, [and] I was hoping we’d have a resolution to that,” he said.

Doell said he is fortunate to work in such a thriving market, however, without the chance to post deal signs or current offers, he worries they will lose customers to places like Saskatoon.

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“We use calls to action to inspire and to motivate people to come on the lot to give us a chance to sell them,” said Doell. Car dealerships are all about “the appeal and the visibility that we are able to share to the community, whether they are from in town, citizens, or they’re coming from Melfort or the [north, east and west.]”

Working in the car industry, Doell said a lot of time and money is spent figuring out ways to attract people to the dealership. This is why he feels so strongly that they should be allowed to put their signs up.

Doell said not only are dealership-specific signs costly, the dealership also pays General Motors for certain signage.

For the mayor, who heard Doell’s concerns at the meeting, the solution isn’t one size fits all.

Mayor Greg Dionne said there can’t be just one type of sign bylaw with so many different types of businesses in the city.

“The problem that I have with it is we keep trying to come up with a universal sign policy, well let’s not do that, let’s do it similar like we do with business licences or transient traders…we have different divisions.”  

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @KaylaBruch1