This week The Chief reported on what happens when downtown businesses take full advantage of their highly visible locations with eye-catching gimmicks that add to the uniqueness of Squamish - they're put in their place.
Local shops have been reminded in no uncertain terms these past few months they're under the very watchful eye of a municipal bylaw enforcer - and make no mistake the bylaws will be enforced.
But the District of Squamish may want be extra vigilant too, to ensure rules are clearly outlined and evenly applied. It's within grey zones that bitterness festers.
Take the recent chastising of Cleveland Avenue's Random clothing store for having a vintage vehicle on their property with a surfboard sign perched on top.
It was up to the bylaw officer to decide whether the vehicle should stay or go since no bylaw states persons cannot park on their property. If she had erred on the side of the shop owner, a petition to keep it where it is and the accompanying news story would surely not have ensued - but that was not to be.
Instead, once the enforcer determined conclusively that the vehicle is in fact on private property, dismissing one bylaw infraction, she nonetheless finds another problem: the delineation between the property and the district's sidewalk is not clear, so posing a liability threat to the district, since, she said: "In my opinion the vehicle's placement still holds a safety hazard."
And there's the rub. She has the highly subjective leeway to decide one way or the other, and she decides to side against the business owner - seemingly arbitrarily.
It should also be noted that she doesn't mention who is responsible for making that delineation clear (why shouldn't it be the district if they're concerned about liability), and she does not explain why she feels the vehicle's placement is a safety hazard. However it is possible that within the walls of Municipal Hall that goes without saying -perhaps it's simply understood (though not by us).
The sign has since been taken down since it's against a real district bylaw. Vehicles can't be used to display signs visible to a roadway. But here too we have enforcement appearing completely random (excuse the pun). The very same vehicle with the very same sign sat on a highly visible roadway in Brackendale for months unnoticed by bylaw officers.
And then there's the flower shop whose rose petals offended Well, what can be said about that? Ridiculous about sums it up.
The bigger question here is why the knee-jerk reaction against shop owners? It's so obvious they're simply trying to grab some attention in unique and creative ways. And they can use all the help they can get - within reason of course.
It's nowhere near as intrusive as, say, Wal Mart, which was somehow able to influence the province to stop an entire highway with a new set of lights.
- Sylvie Paillard
