NEW ENTREPRENEURS: Jim and Sarah Allen have just opened their three- room bed-and-breakfast at the corner of Braun St, and Keith Ave. Totem Ford set to expand A $1.5 MILLION expansion of Terrace Totem Ford will almost double the size of the car dealership. Co-owner Jake de Jong says the firm is embarking on an 11,000-square-foot addi- tion to increase the overall size of the build- ing to 24,000 square feet. The entire build- ing. will be completely renovated. Work has already begun to dig out old fuel tanks and give the property an environ- mentally clean bill of health. De Jong said the main construction work — to be done by Progressive Ventures — likely won't start until the end of March, It’s to take six months and de Jong says customers will have to bear with them dur- ing construction. The remodeling should convert the dealership from its present form — which de Jong says isn’t user friendly — to a slate-of-the-art dealership and show room. All staff taining, for example, will be done in a classroom connected to Ford technicians via a satellite TV feed. “The way Terrace is growing we have ta grow with it,’’ de Jong said. ‘I’ve been here since °53 and I know it’s not going to stop here,’’ The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 28, 1996 - A13 Sign rules protested A CONTROVERSIAL sign bylaw that raised the ire of local businesses last weck will be changed — but probably nol much. More than 70 calls flooded the city’s planning department last week after the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce issued an alert to its mem- bers about the draft bylaw. Staff are still collecting concems today and tomorrow, and will meet with councillors to discuss changes to the proposed bylaw at the Mar. 9 planning committee meeting. So far, city planners concede they need to change one definition for window signs that made it sound like anything in a window visible from outside needed a $25 permit. “I’vs a window sign if someone paints the name of a business right across the window,” senior building inspector Paul Gipps explained. “But if a butcher hangs a sign about a sale on meat in his window, or somcone puls up a non-smoking sign or posters about someone coming to play guitar, I really don’t care.” City councillors think some businesses have simply gone off half- cocked over the proposal and should use the same common sense the city plans to use in enforcing the rules, "T've had zillions of calls and in- quirics and haven't heard one single serious concern about how “Hey, this is going to affect my business,’ ' councillor David Hull said. ‘Ninety-five per cent of people who follow rules aren’t going to be af- fected,”’ Gipps added. ‘But there are some people who sect up a bunch of ‘Business mobilizes to quash city bylaw signs without authorization — and they're the ones these rules are aimed at.”’ The bylaw is supposed to make sure Signs don’t fall and kill people, But it’s also supposed to place some limitations on the style, design and type of signs allowed. City officials could veto a sign they think wouldn’t be in keeping with a neighbourhood or business zone. Tf the business in question didn’t like the staff decision, they could still appeal it to council and seck a vari- ance to the bylaw, Some businesses question what the city is doing regulating taste. But the principle is to prevent parts of town from tuming into Las Vegas- style flashing neon strips. “One guy puts up a big sign over- Shadowing his neighbour,’’ Hull said. Then the other guy puts up a 60-foot sign. Then the first guy puts up a 140- foot sign with strobe lights.”” Hull said the aim is not to enforce consislency or stifle creativity. The temporary sign clause of the proposed bylaw raised the spectre of every concert poster on every hydro pole requiring a $25 permit. Gipps said the “temporary sign” definition doesn’t refer to posters or sale signs, but is instead aimed at things like sandwich signs on sidewalks and banuers across roads that need to be regulated to protect the city from liability. Some people feel the city’s making a lax grab, unnecessarily charging $25 to $100 for-sign permits. But what many don’t realize, Gipps said, is that the city already bas a sign bylaw that charges fees and that is in many Ways more restrictive, “The one we have right now doesn’! even allow real estate signs — that’s how dumb it is,’ councillor Rich McDaniel added. ‘ Some people are also worried about a rule that says Christmas lights and decoralions can only be up between Nov, 15 and Jan. 15. Again, Hull said city staff will be concerned about large-scale abuses —- hot someone who keeps their Christ- mas display up an extra week. “The sign bylaw isn’t meant to regulate a poster of a 25 per cent off sale or your Block Parents sign or your Christmas lights,’ Hull said, “But if some huge garish commercial Christmas light display is put up in July, it could be used to regulate that,’’ Councillor Ed Graydon called the episode a “political bomb.” It’s going to cause some trouble and a lot of unnecessary angst for businesses the way it’s written now, he said, suggesting some of the more iraublesome items in the bylaw could have been filtered out by city staff. “There’s a fecling out there of the city meddling in too much of people’s business as it is,’’ he said, People don’t gain confidence ‘in council by having to mount a mass campaign to stop something they don’t like, he added. _ Out & About Eurocan to expand A $35 MILLION upgrade of Eurocan’s Kitimat pulp mill is expected to create up to 120 jobs during construc-' tion and pump $3 million into the northwest economy. Although no permanent jobs will be created, company officials say none will be lost either. CN to subdivide CN RAIL has applied for subdivisions to split off 12 pieces of land totalling 20 acres from its local holdings. The firm is planning to sell off many properties it has up ta now leased out to tenants. Most of the land is already developed. Youth in business A WORKSHOP for young entrepreneurs is going to be held here Saturday, Mar. 9, _ Organizers hope up to 50 young people aged 17 to 25 will participate in the one-day workshop and Jearn what it _ takes to start their own businesses. Entreneurial guru Mac Taylor and some of Terrace’s ‘young entrepreneurs will discuss how to venture into the business world. It costs $20 and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, at the Coast Inn of the West. It’s jointly sponsored by the Business De- velopment Bank of Canada, the City of Terrace and the ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. 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