Saga of the signs

Press, 6 November 1981, Page 3

Saga of the signs

The saga of these signs at Merivale started like this: Two business tenants of a converted house at 138 Aikmans Road erected an advertising sign at the rear of the house. It rose above the fence that separates the property from the Merivale Mall and its car-park. Someone complained that the sign was illegal since it did not have a Christchurch City Council permit, and so a permit was obtained. That did not stop the mall’s owner, G.U.S. Properties, Ltd, from being annoyed about the sign, since it faced into its car-park, and the fenced-off property’s tenants did not contribute to the maintenance of that carpark, or of the adjacent mall. So the mall erected its own structure, not exactly a sign since it has no writing on it. The blank hoarding on the mall side of the fence

hides the free-standing sign on the other side. Impasse. The Aikmans Road property tenants asked the council if the hoarding was legal, since it did not have a permit. The council said there was nothing it could do about it. The structure was considered an extension of the mall fence, not a sign. It would have to be a little higher to require a permit. In the past, the mall’s owners tried to buy the property when it was still residential and the mall had not been developed. But another buyer got in first, and has since sold the converted house to Mr Tracy Gough. The house contains several businesses, including the two that have their names on the “offending” sign. Mr Gough said he was aware that some of his

tenants thought the argument was more than petty, and that G.U.S. would rather have the building out of the way. But he had never been directly approached to sell the building. He said the fence itself was an interesting story. G.U.S. had said it would not be built if the house’s tenants paid $2 per sq ft each year to help pay for the running of the mall and car-park. A council officer said that both sides were within their rights. Both had put up structures that complied with the by-laws. The whole thing could almost be described as a comic opera. The saga may continue. Under the by-laws, the house’s tenants could raise their sign to 6m without a new permit. To hide that sign, the mall would have to get a permit to raise its “fence extension” high enough.