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Graf was fined for displaying this sign outside his gallery. (Tyrel Featherstone/The Gazette)
Signs still an issue in Beaurepaire Village
Beaconsfield merchant still waiting for day in court
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Graf was fined for displaying this sign outside his gallery. (Tyrel Featherstone/The Gazette)
Erik Graf is still waiting for his day in court.
Graf, owner of the La Palette art gallery in Beaurepaire Village in Beaconsfield, was ticketed twice last year for a bylaw that he, along with some other area merchants, consider unfair.
“We had put out our sandwich board sign on our property, not on the sidewalk, saying ‘come in, we’re open, every weekend for the past 30 years and then, last year, we got ticketed, without warning,” Graf said adding that other merchants in the area were also ticketed for similar offenses.
Graf contested the tickets, which each entail a $100 fine plus $41 in administrative fees, but has yet to have a court date set.
What irks Graf more is that the bylaw in question does not allow sandwich boards but does allow merchants to display their wares outside their stores.
In fact, last Thursday there were a few stores in the three-block strip between Woodland and St. Louis that had their wares outside, including bicycles, shoes, furniture and DVD’s. As well, there was one sandwich board advertising a nursery school.
“And don’t forget all the signs you see for paving and roof contractors when they are doing work in the area,” Graf said, displaying a pile of photos he has taken with just those type of signs posted in the area..
“How can that make sense?” Graf asked. “What it means in effect, is that I can’t put up a beautifully painted sandwich board on Saturdays and Sundays - the only two days that the gallery is open - but I could put a $10,000 painting outside instead,” he said.
“And since when is a good-looking sandwich board uglier than a row of bicycles or shoes?
Graf said he and some other merchants went to city hall but got nowhere, except being told to leave at last May’s council meeting when Graf, frustrated by what he called getting the runaround, called Mayor Bob Benedetti a moron and a liar.
Benedetti said he personally has nothing against sandwich boards but said the bylaw as enacted on the recommendations of a merchants’ committee that was created during the $7 million revitalization of Beaurepaire Village in 2003.
“Any of the merchants could have joined that committee but it just so happens that these merchants did not,” he said, adding that the bylaw was amended in 2005 at the recommendation of the committee, which now no longer exists.
“... if the issue is not about signs, it’s the merchant’s association....we just can’t win in that Village,” Benedetti said. “We busted our butt for them to succeed...and all they do is spit in our face...” .
In July, the mayor sent an email reply to Graf suggesting that “if you don't like the bylaws as they apply.....I suggest you work with the new (merchant’s) association, develop a consensus and take the proposal to council.”
But that, said Graf, is impossible because the merchants’ association has not met in over two years.
Michael Fitzgerald, owner of Chase Art gallery and framing store and a director of the merchants’ association, said that until a few weeks ago, the association had in fact, not gotten together for a very long time. ”We have no members but we met three weeks ago to try to put it (the association) back together.”
“There are only three or four merchants (in Beaurepaire Village) who are unhappy, who have issues with city council,” Fitzgerald added. “Ninety per cent of the merchants are happy.”
“Change is sometimes difficult for some,” said Fitzgerald. “It’d be nice if we could all have a group hug and then move on...”
Linda Berardinucci, owner of Carter Decor on Beaconsfield Blvd., said the bylaw, which she called “a touchy point” among local merchants was there to keep the area “neat and clean.” When asked why she put furniture on display outside her store, she replied “because it attracts customers.”
David L Mitchell, owner of ETI Micro, a computer and video rental store, isn’t sure if his new outdoor signs are legal.
“I had a sandwich board sign advertising the store for which I was ticketed,” he said. “Now, I glued movie boxes to the board and haven’t had more tickets,” he said. “I asked the town to come and tell me if it is legal, but have not heard back yet....’
Mitchell said many business people in the area did not want to join the existing merchant’s association. “That association was supposed to meet twice a year, but it didn’t,” he said. “Why would anybody pay $250 in membership fees for that?
Mitchell said about 30 merchants have gotten together in the hopes of taking over the merchant’s association.
“Hopefully, that will be resolved by December,” he said. “And then there will be a light at the end of the tunnel regarding signage....”