The City of Hamilton’s new policies on awnings and signs got an acrimonious reception from city business heads at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.Beginning next year, awnings, signs and any other jutting attachment on the side of a Hamilton building will come with a fee if they extend over Corporation property.Awnings must reach no closer than two feet to the sidewalk’s outer edge, and signs must not extend more than two feet from the building.Signs or awnings that encroach over the City’s property will cost their owners $75 a year each, as will sandwich boards out on the sidewalks.Attendees at yesterday’s meeting protested that sign-clogged Chancery Lane alone stood to bring the City thousands of dollars in fees.“You’ve only brought this in to make more money,” one accused.Phoenix Stores CEO George Grundmuller called the new policy “totally wrong for this economic climate”, pointing out that Brown & Co has ten awnings over City sidewalks for which the store stands to pay a hefty annual fee.“They’re all there for the enjoyment of passers-by,” Mr Grundmuller told Corporation of Hamilton chief operating officer Ed Benevides, who presented the new policy along with City engineer Patrick Cooper.“You’re telling me I need to pay $75 for each one of them? Who’s going to lose out?” he asked.Another angry business representative said: “People are struggling — people need to hear about this. I believe everybody here should not pay. Cut this s**t out and find your money somewhere else.”Informed that the policy, effective January 1, was not open to a a vote by businesses, some in the audience got up and walked out.“The people that provide the tax funds don’t get to vote on it,” one said. “This is useless.”Stressed Mr Benevides: “This is a policy. This is the way we would like to do business. The alternative is to put it into ordinance, and the reason we’re averse to that is ordinances have serious consequences if they’re contravened.”Starting on December 1, businesses within the City limits will be able to download payment forms from the Corporation website, he said.Asked by restaurateur Phil Barnett if the Corporation intended to investigate businesses to enforce the policy, Mr Benevides said it would prefer businesses to enforce the policy on their own.The City has always had an awning policy, Mr Benevides explained; the change is that it has been amended to include signs and a higher fee.No advertising of any kind is to be displayed on awnings.“We’re not making any new rules yet,” he said, adding: “The challenge we’re facing is the old policy was allowed to lapse.”With signage proliferating in the City, Planning officials are also taking action against businesses with neon signs that are visible from the street, illuminated signs and signs with too-large lettering, he said.Mr Benevides said Hamilton is looking to St George’s’ rules on sign appearance and placement as a rough guideline for how to set guidelines for the City.Chamber of Commerce executive director Joanne MacPhee said the Chamber would be happy to discuss proposed changes to the Advertisement Regulations Act of 1911 to address some of the concerns of Hamilton businesses.