Tofino's visitors and locals may be struggling to work their way through Industrial Way.
During last week's regular council meeting, Tofino's council reviewed a letter from Loic Hersco asking the district to install a new directory sign at the corner of Industrial Way.
"The current business directory signage provided by the district is cluttered with multiple signs and there isn't space for more," Hersco wrote adding each individual sign on the directory is too small to be adequately visible to passing traffic.
"We feel that it is past time that the District of Tofino erect a proper business directory sign board with enough space for all the businesses that are now in your industrial park with an allowance of space for future businesses as well."
Coun. Dorothy Baert made a motion to refer Hersco's letter to district staff to investigate possible solutions and council unanimously agreed.
Staff's report will come back to council as part of a capital signage plan the district is currently working towards.
Coun. Al Anderson noted there are still a few empty lots on Industrial Way that will eventually be filled and he suggested a universally acceptable signage solution is unlikely.
"I'm not really sure if a directory sign is going to be able to cover off all the businesses that may end up there to the satisfaction of everyone," he said. He said a directory sign large enough to include all of Industrial Way's current and future businesses would be tough for a passing driver to sort through.
"It would still be confusing for a person driving past trying to read all the businesses and see what's there," he said. "There may not be a solution that all the businesses will be satisfied with."
Coun. Greg Blanchette said the current directory sign is poorly located.
"It's only visible when going North, it's completely invisible when going South," he said.
Blanchette agreed that it would be unrealistic for one directory sign to cover every business and suggested supplementing the directory sign with additional signage along Industrial to identify various clusters of businesses.
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