Reader's comments »
By adding a comment on the site, you accept our terms and conditions and our netiquette rules.
There are no electronic billboards flashing ads at downtown motorists, and it's likely to stay that way — but a city committee could open the door for electronic signage showing off Winnipeg's entertainment options.
On Monday, lawyers representing the advertising industry were shot down as they tried to argue for looser rules on electronic billboards downtown.
Last year, the city changed the rules for digital signs out off the downtown to ensure they were nearly static, and theoretically less distracting, with images on screen for six straight seconds and a .25 second transition from one image to the next.
But downtown, no such signs have been allowed — for advertisers — for 20 years.
Lawyer Charles Chappell argued the guidelines for billboards outside of the downtown have worked well and could work in the downtown, through regulation.
If digital signs for events at MTS Centre, Shaw Park, and Centennial Concert Hall exist, other signs should be allowed for advertising, he said.
"The rationale to permit other types of signs, including event signs is discriminatory ... why are you going to say events signs can have advertising, but you can't have an advertising sign?" he said.
The committee refused Chappell's plea, opting to prevent advertisers from using the billboards.
But the file will next move to EPC, where councillors will mull whether to allow new billboards in the SHED district.
Stefano Grande, executive director of the Downtown BIZ, said there is a time and place for bright, distracting billboard advertisements — and the downtown is not one of them.
"All zoning does is paint a picture for how something can look," he said. "So we can be a Las Vegas, or we can be something different."
The Downtown BIZ was consulted before the report was brought to committee and Grande said they fully supported it.
However, putting digital advertisement in the entertainment district is a good idea, he said.
"There is a role for electronic billboards in the entertainment district," he said. "That's the place where advertisers want to be."
This story will be updated.
Twitter: @kristinannable
By adding a comment on the site, you accept our terms and conditions and our netiquette rules.