The corporation that owns two of Penticton’s mall complexes will be putting in new digital signs.

SmartCentres, which owns the complex that has the Superstore on Main Street and a portion of the complex that includes the Walmart on Skaha Lake Road, was given city council’s go-ahead for the large-scale signs.

Both signs required variances to allow for a larger signage area, and for the Skaha Lake Road property a height variance as well.

City staff cited the nearby Cherry Lane Mall sign as part of their reasons for recommending approval, as well as examples of SmartCentre’s signs in other communities as examples of what they will look like.

“I believe this is an opportunity to modernize, it’s not as compact, it’s not as mishmashed, it’s going to look a lot cleaner,” said Acting Mayor Campbell Watt.

The signs were also scaled down from the property owner’s original requests, which would have added another three metres in height and even more sign space.

Coun. Isaac Gilber was the sole vote opposed to the variances, and Mayor Julius Bloomfield was absent.

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