Billboard proposal coming for local grain elevator
By Medicine Hat News on January 8, 2020.
A proposal to erect eight 20-foot-tall billboards on a former grain elevator near the Allowance Avenue overpass will go before the municipal planning commission today in Medicine Hat. The meeting will also see a final draft of an agreement between the city, Redcliff and Cypress County regarding mutual areas of development be presented at the meeting, which begins at 2:30 p.m. at city hall chambers. The application to place signs on the former Lake of the Woods elevator, which faces Allowance Avenue but is addressed on S. Railway Street, requires the commission to allow a variance to both the size of allowable signs and the quantity allowed in an area. Initial plans show that the vertical signs, measuring 10 feet wide and 20 feet tall would be placed on each silo compartment on two sides of the structure. Two would be LED signs, one on each face. Signs of that size are currently allowed in industrial and commercial districts, while the site is designated as a mixed-use zone. A similar, albeit smaller proposal was filed in 2013 by Harvco Signs, which would have seen an LED billboard facing westbound motorists on Allowance Avenue. The commission agreed in principle with the idea, but stipulated that a maintenance and access agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway was required as a condition since that company owned land directly adjacent to the building wall. At the time, city staff believe adding a sign would constitute an encroachment on the CP property. A new agreement is suggested as a requirement to the new proposal for the commission to consider. In a separate matter, the Tri-Area Development Plan is a 10-year-old agreement between Medicine Hat and the surrounding municipalities that lays down general land-use and regulations on land that borders another municipality. Potential amendments to the agreement were publicized at two open houses this fall, and the city development commission will accept the proposal today for debate. The agreement must be passed by all three councils. Administrators believe that could be accomplished in March. 13-12
