KEY POINTS:
Words like "world-class" and "urban design" roll off the tongue of Auckland City deputy mayor Bruce Hucker to justify cleansing the city's corner dairies, suburban strips and shopping centres of signs.
Dr Hucker, who has mixed politics with an academic career in planning, is at the forefront of plans to ban signs above verandahs and bring in tough new restrictions that will hit thousands of businesses in the pocket.
The new signs bylaw is being done in conjunction with plans to ban billboards in the Queen St valley - including Britomart, Karangahape Rd and the Viaduct Harbour - and other popular centres such as Newmarket, Ponsonby and Parnell.
The signs issue, says Dr Hucker, is primarily about urban design and the desire to reduce visual clutter, make the city more attractive to visitors and workers, highlight heritage buildings and follow cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to "create a civilised urban environment".
Sydney, which he visited this summer, "is a vigorous commercial city but it doesn't have the clutter of signs that we have in Auckland. The central city was billboard free and the city is relatively free of signs".
The proposed bylaw for signs was an attempt to balance reasonable levels of advertising and a good street environment in the central city and suburban areas, he said. For example, the council believed naming rights on commercial buildings were legitimate and would stay, whereas it regarded signs above verandahs as visual clutter and they should go.
Areas where the new bylaw could have an impact were fringe areas of the CBD, like Ponsonby Rd, and some shopping centres, Dr Hucker said.
He acknowledged the argument that signs added vibrancy and colour to an area could have merit.
"On the other hand when you look at the cumulative effects of signage in an area you see that you get that kind of visual clutter that detracts from the character of an area.
"The purpose of the bylaw procedure is try to get the balance right between those two approaches," he said.
The public have until March 2 to make submissions on the proposed bylaw.
After hearings by a panel of five councillors in April, the council is expected the adopt the new bylaw in May. The council has filled the hearings panel with councillors who voted in favour of the draft bylaw - Glenda Fryer, Faye Storer, Christine Caughey, Graeme Mulholland and Penny Sefuiva.
None of the five councillors who voted against the bylaw will hear the public submissions or have a say on the final recommendations.
Ms Fryer, who will chair the hearings panels and has publicly criticised billboards and signs, said she was prevented by law from expressing a personal view while people were making public submissions.
Last year she backed a pre-dawn raid by council officers on Mt Eden's Retravision Stereo World, cutting down more than a dozen signs worth up to $100,000, and in December said "really big, ugly billboards don't cut it" in the central city.
She said that as chairwoman of the planning and regulatory committee it was her job to chair the bylaw hearings and rejected the suggestion of having an anti-sign agenda.
She said that only last week she supported a number of dispensations from the existing signs bylaw at a planning hearing.
"I, and other people on the bylaw hearing, are genuinely listening to what the people of Auckland are saying at the moment," Ms Fryer said.
She said the reason independent commissioners did not sit on bylaw hearings was that it was a core business of council determined by politicians - even though they had to put their political and personal views aside and act with an open mind during the consultation phase.
PROPOSED NEW RULES
Above-Verandah Signs
* Banned (except for signs above taverns)
Under-Verandah Signs
* One under-verandah sign per 5m of shop frontage.
* No higher than 30cm and no deeper than 20cm.
* End of sign must be at least 50cm from the verandah fascia.
* No more than 25 per cent of sign area for product advertising.
Verandah Fascia Signs
* No higher than 30cm.
* May not protrude above the verandah fascia or verandah roofline.
* May not project more than 5cm from the verandah fascia, portico, balcony or awning.
* No more than 25 per cent of the sign area for product advertising.
Shop Frontage Signs
* No more than 20 per cent of a shop frontage below the verandah line can be covered in signage.
* May not project from the building wall by more than 5cm up to 2.1m and 25cm above 2.1m.
Sandwich Boards (Also free-standing banner/flags)
* No more than one with road frontage or two where premises have more than one road frontage.
* Must be removed at the end of each business day.
* Must be between 75cm and 1.5m above ground level, no wider than 60cm and no bigger than 0.6sq m.
* No free-standing signs within 5m of an intersection and 2m of a pedestrian crossing.
Entrance Signs (typically for businesses above ground level)
* Limited to business with less than 2m of street frontage.
* Must be placed within 1m of entrance to business.
* Must not exceed 2sq m.
* Must not project more than 5cm from wall of building.
Tavern Signs
* Only signs allowed above verandah height.
* No higher than 1m.
* One sign per 5m of shop frontage with a maximum of four per business.
* May not be positioned within 5m of an under-verandah sign for the same business.
* Allowed up to 3m in small shopping blocks and town centres, up to 4m in larger centres such as Newmarket and up to 6m in industrial areas.
