The digital sign and third party advertising sign portion of the Signage Regulation Review project is looking at digital (electronic) signs and third party advertising signs, which are also known as billboards.
Interim Digital Sign Regulations
In 2010, administration was directed to prepare interim measures to deal with the influx of digital signs in Calgary. The Calgary Land Use Bylaw 1P2007 does not contain regulations dealing with brightness, rate of message change or ambient light levels related to the light emissions from digital signs.
At the 2010 April 15 meeting of Calgary Planning Commission (CPC), a report (
M2010-014) was brought forward with a recommended approach to deal with digital signs until the full review of the Land Use bylaw could be completed.
CPC tabled the report for 1 month, to return to Calgary Planning Commission on 2010 May 13 after consulting with the Sign Industry further. On 2010 May 13, the item returned to CPC where it was tabled until 2010 December. Administration was directed to bring back a second option for consideration for Interim regulations on Digital Signs.
During the course of the summer and fall of 2010, members of the Land Use Bylaw Sustainment Team conducted a number of consultation meetings with Community and Industry Stakeholders. On
2010 December 9 , the 'second option' was brought back to CPC for consideration. At that meeting, CPC recommended the 'second option' to go forward to City Council for public hearing.
At the 2011 February 7 City Council Public Hearing, the Interim regulations were tabled for one month at the request of the Sign Industry. The item returned for public hearing on 2011 March 7. After accepting submissions from the public and industry and a presentation on the Planning Commission recommendation, this item was referred to a special Task Force, consisting of 3 members of City Council.
The Regulation of Digital, Electronic and Computer Signage Special task force held a number of meetings, including a public engagement session on 2011 April 26. The final meeting of the task force was in 2011 May 10. At that time, the Special Task Force directed administration to prepare a new bylaw to go forward to council, with changes from the original recommendation of administration in 2011 March 7. At the 2011 June 15 meeting of the Standing Policy Committee (SPC) on Land Use, Planning and Transportation (LPT), the task force recommendation to adopt Bylaw 30P2011 (the task force bylaw) was sent forward to City Council for a public hearing. At the 2011 July 4th (item 11.1.1)meeting of City Council, Bylaw 30P2011 was approved and given three readings by City Council. The interim regulations, are not in effect and will remain in place until the main project is completed and new policy and rules are prepared and approved by City Council.
Digital and third party advertising sign review project
The main portion of this project has begun. A series of public information and stakeholder meetings were held in July and more meetings will be occurring as the project moves forward. These meetings will be posted on this website once the meeting dates have been finalized. There will be another series of open houses near the end of the project which are tentatively scheduled for early December. This project will examine the regulations for third party advertising signs (billboards), the interim regulations for digital signage and the Council approved "Billboard Development Policy Guide for Calgary".
In March 2012, following the review of comments from Stakeholders and the Public from Open Houses in January 2012, an updated framework and policy were presented for review and further comment. Following these meetings, and after reviewing all stakeholder comments, Administration recognized the need to re-examine and refine some additional details of both the framework and policy in order to accommodate some of the remaining concerns. The final version of the framework and policy will be ready at the beginning of May for circulation.
Some of the goals of this project are to:
Research best practices from other cities to get a better understanding of regulations for these types of signs and adapt them to create a "made in Calgary" solution;
Update the Billboard Development Policy to look at the current development context in the City;
Update the regulations in the land use bylaw to deal with digital technology and some of the issues related to digital sign operation (such as brightness, message timing, ambient light emissions);
Review various safety studies and ensure that the sign regulations focus on the safety of Calgarians;
Ensure that the regulations and policies achieve the goals set out in the Calgary Municipal Development Plan.
Project team
The digital and third party advertising sign review is being done by members of the Land Use Bylaw Sustainment Team with the Planning Implementation branch of Development and Building Approvals and with the assistance of a professional consultant.
For further information on the Digital and Third party Advertising Sign project – please contact:
landusebylawreview@calgary.ca or call 403-268-3775 to speak to a member of the project team.
