The 1292 Dupont Street Roof Sign: Can Sid Catalano Tell the Truth?
That’s a question the City of Toronto Buildings Department is asking.
Pattison Outdoor’s Director of Legislation, the man that wrote Toronto’s signs by-law when he was a city planner, has a nasty habit of filing false information with the Buildings Department in order to obtain permits for billboards that Pattison is just not entitled to - permits that are illegal under the very by-law that he wrote.
On January 11, 2001, Sid Catalano obtained this permit to erect a roof sign at 1292 Dupont Street.
Because 1292 Dupont is in an Industrial Zone, third party roof signs are permitted. However, the signs by-law prohibits third party roof signs from being within 60M of other third party roof signs. So how did Mr. Catalano obtain a permit for the sign advertising beer, on the roof of 1292 Dupont, when, according to our measuring wheel, it is within 48.5 Metres of the (orange) CBS roof sign on the roof of 1278 Dupont Street, a sign that was permitted in September 1995?
Easy, Mr. Catalano lied, on page two of this document where he attested that the roof sign at 1292 Dupont was not within 60M of another third party roof sign. Here is exactly where Sid lied:
Although the permit was issued in 2001, Buildings has not yet inspected this sign. See, you don’t have to be a fraud artist to defraud Buildings into issuing illegal permits. Buildings has been exceedingly sloppy and did not proactively inspect billboard permits until IllegalSigns.ca started complain about them.
Even to this day, Buildings has tens upon tens of permits for billboards that were issued between 5 and 15 years ago that have never once been inspected. And most of the time when they do get inspected, the inspector does not check for 60M separations. Upon inspection, the permit for the roof sign at 1292 Dupont will be revoked but charges can’t be laid against Mr. Catalano because the false information was filed over a year ago, and 12 months is the statute of limitations for such a charge. We are eagerly seeking fraudulent permits that Mr. Catalano has obtained within the past 12 months, but time is running out because he has been careful since IllegalSigns.ca started. Please let us know if you have any info.
The Star has an article on the Audi fiasco today.
