SUNDRE - A sign displaying anti-abortion messaging does not violate any Town of Sundre bylaws, municipal officials have confirmed.
The large sign — mounted on a privately-owned property fence facing westbound traffic on the way down the hill into Sundre — is located immediately east of the Sundre Golf Club on the north side of Highway 27.
“We’re aware of the sign…we’ve heard the rumblings through social media,” said Mike Marko, the municipality’s director of planning development. “It’s on private property — not on town land, or highway property,” said Marko.
Although municipal officials are aware of concerns about the messaging that have been expressed on social media, Marko said no complaints have been lodged directly with town staff.
When asked if the sign was in any violation of the municipality’s land use bylaw, Marko said, “No, it is not.”
The structure supporting the sign — not the message currently on display — has been in place for some time and was grandfathered when the Town of Sundre annexed the land from Mountain View County, he said.
“When we regulate signage under the land use bylaw, we regulate the location and placement, but not the content,” he said.
“We don’t have jurisdiction over the message content on the billboard.”
Although the town’s land use bylaw does not allow for new billboard structures, he said the one in question was erected before the land was annexed into the boundaries of the town.
“If someone was coming to apply to place a new billboard on a private property, we wouldn’t allow it,” he said, adding any pre-existing sign structures would be grandfathered under a non-conforming use as permitted by the Municipal Government Act.
“Anyone applying for a new billboard within the Town of Sundre would be refused.”
Billboard signs, he explained, are not particularly desirable from an urban development perspective.
Even if someone had, for example, demanded the sign be removed, Marko re-emphasized that the municipality’s responsibility revolves around regulating the physical sign structure, not the messaging displayed.
“The structure predates our land use bylaw, and can continue as long as it does not change location or increase in size,” he said
“No action is being taken on this sign.”
Kevin Heerema, Sundre’s community peace officer who enforces local bylaws, said he had not received any direct complaints about the sign either.
Such matters, he added, are referred to and handled by the municipality’s planning and development department.
“The size, style and placement of any signage, period, has to be approved by the town,” Heerema said.
“It’s not the content we look at,” he said, adding any signs that come close to a highway must also have a permit issued by Alberta Transportation.
