By Corey Fischer

Signs Made Easier To Understand

Aug 18, 2017 | 5:28 PM

The District of Lake Country is taking steps to make new development proposals easier to understand for residents.

Everyone has seen the big white legal-looking Development Proposal signs on a property in their neighbourhood, but not everyone knows why they are there and what they mean.

They are all about public notification.

Faced with the task of updating the notification signs that get posted on applicable properties proposing new development changes, Planning Technician Jocelyn Ratzlaff and Planning Summer Student AJ Taylor took on the challenge of designing notification signs that would be more visible and less bureaucratic.

“Our goal is to keep the public informed, so we really want the signs to be bright and understandable in plain language – so that people can clearly know what is proposed when development occurs,” says Ratzlaff.

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Municipalities have to post signs at certain steps in the development approval process, so Lake Country took the opportunity to simplify the old black and white signs by adding colour and clarifying the messaging.

Ratzlaff says “we were happy to also see a slight money savings to printing the new notification signs since the printing company recently purchased a machine that could produce them at lower cost.”

Considering the growth that Lake Country is experiencing, Mayor James Baker highlights the importance of engaging residents, commenting that “as an evolving community, inviting our residents to have a conversation on development is important, and this is a small step in trying to do so.”

The new notification signs will be phased in as the remaining inventory of old signs run out.

Photo: Jocelyn Ratzlaff, Planning Technician, (right) and AJ Taylor, Planning Summer Student (left) displaying Lake Country’s old and new development notification signs.

by Corey Fischer