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Readers rant about city hall’s opulance and an overzealous parking enforcer in Surrey
Surrey Eagles square off against Langley in first round of BCHL playoffs
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Surrey
‘Rethink Waste’
Surrey bylaw zeroes in on ugly, cluttered signs
Surrey wins national award for sustainability Samantha Lego
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Surrey Coun. Bruce Hayne says a new bylaw will target “ugly” signs, especially in certain business sectors. (Photo: KEVIN HILL) Amy Reid
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SURREY — Surrey has made changes to its sign bylaw in an effort to create a more beautiful city. Surrey Coun. Bruce Hayne said amendments to the Surrey Sign By-Law No. 13656 were approved by council late last year, and the city is now looking to
educate businesses before it starts handing out tickets. The changes are intended to reduce red tape and to enhance the city’s streetscapes. Most of the amendments deal with unsightliness, Hayne said. “So, flags, banners, bouncing gorillas, all of that stuff. And then multiple signs in windows, for instance, covering up almost the entire window of a premise, we’ve
reduced the percentage of windows that can be covered by signage, we’ve reduced the number of second-storey signs on a building and so on, just to try to reduce sign clutter in the city.” Hayne said sandwich boards, for example, are not allowed on public property. see SIGN BYLAW › page 3
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SURREY — The City of Surrey was presented with a national award for its “Rethink Waste” collection program. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) awarded the city with the Sustainable Communities Award during the 2014 FCM meeting, held on Prince Edward Island earlier this month. Coun. Bruce Hayne accepted the award on behalf of the city. Surrey’s waste collection program was launched in Oct. 2012 and met its 2015 goal of 70 per cent regional waste diversion a few months later. It involves a curbside organics collection system and a fleet of compressed natural gas waste collection trucks. Mayor Dianne Watts said the award highlights the city’s commitment to future growth and sustainability as outlined in the 50-year Sustainability Charter. “Surrey is expected to grow to over 750,000 residents in the next two decades, which means we need to plan for this growth,” she said. “We eagerly anticipate the completion of the Bio-Fuel Facility next year, making Surrey home to the only fully integrated, closed-loop waste management system in North America.” The FCM Sustainable Communities Award recognizes innovation in municipalities across Canada.