Election foul: Signs removed

Photo: Contributed - Google Street View

The median just north of Reid's Corner is now devoid of election signs.

About a dozen or more election signs are now property of Kelowna Bylaw after they were removed for running afoul of City sign guidelines.

The signs were removed Tuesday afternoon from the median just north of Reid's Corner.

Prior to the start of the campaign, candidates were provided a three page bulletin outlining the City's election sign guidelines.

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Election signs collected by bylaw officers for contravening the sign guidelines.

Senior Bylaw Officer, Kurt Szalla, says these particular signs in the area around the Welcome To Kelowna sign were in contravention of the sign placement guidelines.

"The city engineer has decided this median in which these signs were placed is in a high traffic area and, obviously for election purposes this is an ideal spot for candidates to place signage, however, it does create a distraction for motorists," says Szalla.

"This area as we all know is prone to high accident numbers and the traffic engineer determined he did not want to contribute to that with election signs."

The sign guidelines spell out where signs are and are not permitted for safety reasons.

• Signs are only permitted outside of a sight triangle. Sight triangles are 8m back from the point of an intersection or street.
• Signs must be located so that they do not obscure the line of vision from a street, access road or sidewalk to incoming traffic. This means generally 3m away from the face of the curb or edge of the pavement and not within .6m of a sidewalk.
• Signs may not be affixed, erected or displayed on public property as outlined in section 3.2 of the bylaw including in any centre median, on any traffic control device, curb, sidewalk, post, pole, hydrant or fence, in any city owned or maintained tree well.
• Signs must not be placed in a location that creates an unsafe obstruction or visual impairment for pedestrian or vehicle traffic.

Bylaw officers removed the signs and transported them to the bylaw compound at Harvey and Richter.

Szalla says a few signs have already been returned to the candidates at no charge.

The remaining candidates have been informed of the infraction and told where they can pick up their signs.

City Clerk, Stephen Fleming stated last month that the placement of election signs is always the number one complaint received during election time.

Bylaw Services Manager, Greg Wise, says the number of complaints to date have been very minimal.