The Regional District of Nanaimo will be meeting with residents in March and April to discuss rural area signage. This consultation is intended to identify opportunities for effective signage in RDN Electoral Areas, with the goal to improve community identification and promote economic development.
“Effective and informative signage is important to the local economy – it supports public safety and can strengthen community identity and pride, so we are reaching out to communities to find out what we can do to make this process easier,” said RDN Board Chair Bill Veenhof.
The RDN is involved in regulating signs on private property in rural areas through zoning and sign regulations as well as through development permit area guidelines. These measures ensure proposed signage is consistent with community objectives and the vision set out in an Official Community Plan (OCP).
The RDN has worked with community groups and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to complete a series of pilot projects supporting community identification and economic development through signage. These include the Lighthouse Country entrance signs, Lighthouse Country Business Association signs and the Nanoose Bay Community signs. The pilot projects have produced promising results which has prompted the expansion of this community consultation to the rest of the region.
In addition to the community consultations, the RDN will make available an online questionaire, with participants able to enter into a draw for a $50 gift card to the grocery store of their choice.
Results of the community consultation will be presented to the Board later this year.
For more information on rural area signage, to find out when meetings will be held in your area, or to fill out the questionaire, visit www.rdn.bc.ca/ruralsignage.
— Submitted by RDN