By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Aug 14, 2017
It’s been six years since the Squamish Town Centre sign was destroyed by a car and the town has been waiting ever since for the sign to reappear. That wait is finally over. District is currently installing new signs, with the first phase of signs being installed in the Downtown and Loggers Lane Area.
The signs will be installed in phases over five years. The first phase will cost $221,500 in 2017, the majority of which (77 per cent) is being funded from accumulated surplus this year.
The total budget over five years is proposed to be $1,275,000.
For the first phase, Squamish will get two Squamish gateway signs at the north and south ends of town on Highway 99; two Downtown signs (north and south, also on Highway 99); and a series of vehicular and pedestrian/cyclist signs in the Downtown vicinity and extending out to the Adventure Centre and Brennan Park along Loggers Lane.
Community members including the Squamish Nation, tourism and business leaders, brand leadership team members and trails groups created the design strategy in a bid to evoke the words active active, modern, youthful, bold, innovative, environmental, integrity and clarity.
Ease of maintenance was a key factor in the design and selection of materials.
“This phase will allow us to test a variety of aspects of the wayfinding system and make any adjustments before rolling out future phases,” says Gary Buxton, General Manager of Community Planning & Infrastructure. “Priority setting for phase two will follow as we look to develop a fulsome system throughout the community.”
“These new signs will help to visually define Squamish as a community and showcase our town to visitors from both the north and south. It will also help to highlight destinations and promote movement so that people can quickly and easily navigate our town,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
Dave Colwell says
Over a million every 5 years….Peanuts….We can do that every five years right?
I mean, signs wear out and we change our minds as to the way we look at ourselves right? 🙂
Dave Colwell says
Let’s do the math:
$1,000,000
How many signs…say 100
That’s $10,000 a sign …. pretty good money!
OK, so:
1000 signs…do we actually need this many?
That’s $1000 a sign…Still good if I were a sign writer.
What TF is going on here?
ellen says
Over a million dollars for signage and it will come in phases?? Has the district gone insane? Because there is a surplus, you squander money like this? I can’t even..
Reckoning Day says
So our used to be quaint little town is totally plugged up with tourists. Tell me where the good part starts or do we all just stupidly follow each other no matter if it’s smart or not ?
Elsbeth Klausner says
How about paying back loans and lower property tax before wasting such a huge amount for signage? Council should think further before voting for such a project. This is taxpayers money they spend!