Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 ::: Audits of By-Law Enforcement

In today’s Audit of By-Law Enforcement, we look Titan Outdoor’s sign at the 2nd floor of The Black Bull.

This is one of the most obviously illegal signs in Toronto, yet Municipal Standards Officer Anthony Bartolo determined that it is legal.

The sign has no permit, obstructs windows and dominates the facade of this historic building - it requires about 5 variances to the Signs By-Law to legalize. Yet, when Municipal Licensing and Standards investigated this sign in January 2006, Officer Bartolo incorrectly determined the sign is legal by relying upon a permit that was issued to a neighbouring property for a completely different sign.

Let’s take a look at Bartolo’s notes:

So Bartolo relied upon folder 05-159728 to conclude that “existing sign is permitted.” Well, IllegalSigns.ca took a look at folder 05-159728. Turns out, it has nothing to do with the sign Bartolo was investigating. This is what you get when you punch 05-159728 into the Building Department’s computer:

“PUBLIC - SIGN VARIANCE, Due Date is 28-JUL-05, >>Replace Existing Third Party Pedestal Sign With A Newly Designed Third Party Pedestal Sign With Same Footprint As Existing Third Party Sign. The Proposed New Third Party Pedestal Sign Which Replaces The Old Pedestal Sign Is Not Permitted - Chapter 297-10-D-12 Sign”.

Folder 05-159728 refers to an application for a variance for a pedestal sign, this Pattison pedestal sign, in fact, in the parking lot at north-west corner of Queen and Soho; Problem is, Bartolo was investigating a wall sign at 298 Queen, at the north-east corner of Queen and Soho. Notice that Bartolo must have read this paragraph, since he lifts words directly from it. Strangely, he never uses the words “Pedestal Sign” in his notes and confuses “same footprint” with “different footprint”.

When Pattison’s Sid Catalano applied for that variance for the Pedestal sign accross the street, he mistakenly listed the municipal address of the parking lot as 298 Queen Street West, rather than 302 Queen West… and neither the Buildings Department nor the Planning Department has yet corrected that error.

But that’s no excuse for Officer Bartolo. The Black Bull sign was illegally displayed for over a year because Officer Bartolo doesn’t know the difference between a sign affixed to the ground and a sign affixed to the side of a building.

After IllegalSigns.ca filed a complaint against this sign, MLS ordered it removed. Titan Outdoor has now removed this illegal sign. We took this photo on February 10, 2007:

Our Queen West volunteer is watching this site daily for an illegal re-erection and will report to you when an illegal re-erection occurs. In fact, we are watching all of the industry’s signs for illegal re-erections after documenting and photographing each City-ordered removal.

Update: Titan Outdoor has cancelled its contract with the Black Bull for this site.

Coming up in IllegalSigns.ca: We are auditing every MLS investigation into every illegal sign that we know of. Find out how MLS screwed up pretty much every investigation into third party signs that it conducted.