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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014
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Richmond to get legal opinion in sign debate Outgoing councillor tables motion asking staff to study city hall’s power in regulating language by Matthew Hoekstra Staff Reporter
Martin van den Hemel photo Tourism Richmond’s Ed Gavsie said what Steveston is experiencing with tourist interest in Once Upon a Time is akin to what Albuquerque, New Mexico has seen since the hit TV series Breaking Bad began filming there in 2008. See story, page 4.
Richmond City Hall will study whether it can compel property owners to include English on their signs, after Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt tabled one of her final motions Tuesday. City council voted unanimously in favour of the retiring councillor’s motion, 19 months after it heard a delegation armed with a 1,000-name petition urging civic politicians to halt the proliferation of foreign-language-only signs. In announcing last month she wouldn’t run in the fall election, Halsey-Brandt told The Richmond Review the next council should address the issue, noting a development sign on her street that doesn’t contain a word of English. At Tuesday’s council meeting, she managed to convince her council colleagues to at least have staff study whether the city can regulate signs on private property, “and whether or not that ability extends to mandating a percentage of English” on
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such signs. “As the discussion in the community regarding the use of English on signs escalates I think it’s really important that both council and the citizens and residents of Richmond know whether or not council has the legal ability to regulate the use of English on signs,” she said. “I hope that this will bring some clarity to the issue.” Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie agreed. “I think it’s a central issue in that whole discussion. If we do or we don’t have the legal ability…that’s going to obviously influence in a very decided manner how we then can go forward,” he said.
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Coun. Harold Steves stressed the importance of having English on development-related signs. “It’s unfair when the rest of us can’t read what’s on a sign particularly when it’s dealing with property and the buying and selling of land in Richmond.” He also pointed to a weekend letter to the editor on the topic in the Vancouver Sun, penned by former Richmond bylaws manager Wayne Mercer. Mercer noted he received regular phone calls from residents asking what the city was going to do about Chinese-only signs. See Page 7
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Development signs offering no English are now popping up in Richmond, prompting a city councillor to call for a legal opinion.
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