MAPLETON – There are new rules here about what signs are permitted and where.
Council approved the township’s first sign bylaw unanimously during a regular meeting of council on Sept. 23.
Planning and development manager Michelle McCabe presented a draft bylaw during the meeting.
McCabe said the township receives “a good number of requests for signs,” especially as agri-tourism and roadside stands are becoming more popular.
Those signs are fine, she noted, but there have also been a few recent requests for billboards.
Without a sign bylaw, McCabe said the township didn’t have a way to regulate how far back large signs sit from neighbours and staff members were concerned about confusion caused by the lack of regulation.
“We are trying to prevent more bylaw calls from coming in from neighbours being disgruntled,” she said.
“To be proactive we did a bit of an assessment of our local community municipalities and took the best of what we thought we could do.”
McCabe said township staff has no concerns with real estate signs or children putting up signs to advertise lemonade stands.
The bylaw, she said, is “certainly not an attempt to police or over manage or deal with enforcement,” nor is it an attempt to make money.
“It is truly about the larger structures that are starting to come forward, and giving people some parameters to work with.”
Billboards can offer an opportunity for rural property owners to supplement their income by renting out the sign, she noted.
For signs that require permits, there will be a fee of $120 for the rest of 2025 and $155 starting in 2026.
According to a report, the purpose of the bylaw is to “provide a fair, equitable and transparent process to the treatment of signs across the municipality.
“It can be used to encourage signs that are aesthetically pleasing (and to) minimize hazards and potentially adverse impacts on nearby public and private property.”
Many signs will not require permits, McCabe noted, such as small signs that are not obtrusive and do not impact sight lines.
Councillor Marlene Ottens asked about wire picket signs the township puts up for events, and McCabe said those would not require a permit.
Nor would the Legion’s poppy signs for Remembrance Day.
Other wire picket signs on private property, flag signs, window signs and real estate signs also do not need require permits, though they must comply with the bylaw and may require a building permit.
Councillor Michael Martin asked McCabe to elaborate on the reason a sign bylaw is needed.
“I personally didn’t know signs were an issue within Mapleton so to see this very comprehensive bylaw … What are we trying to accomplish, outside of the regulation piece?”
McCabe said “if you’d like to have it come back at a later date to have it not be so comprehensive (that’s fine), but I’d rather you have something to work with and chop up than having to build it back up again.”
CAO Manny Baron said in addition to the recent billboard request that is too close to a residential lot, he requested the bylaw because “there are some businesses in town that are maybe taking advantage of the number of signs that are on the building.
“Some of them are dilapidated – they don’t make our downtowns look good,” said Baron, noting this includes businesses in Drayton, Alma and Moorefield.
He said the bylaw would give township staff “teeth when we go into these businesses to be able to say ‘you know your sign is not appropriate.’”
Acting chief building official Mike Walsh said he has two current billboard applications, and “both of them are going to cause significant complaints from neighbours just from the location they are trying to put them.”
