Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 ::: Audits of By-Law Enforcement
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In this Audit of By-Law Enforcement we take a look at Titan Outdoor’s sign at 254 Adelaide Street West. This is what the sign looks like:

First, some history. On July 3, 1981, Mediacom’s Ron Phillipson obtained permit# 165881 to erect a roof sign at 254 Adelaide:

Then in 1995, Cieslok Outdoor erected an illegal vinyl fascia sign on the westerly wall of 254 Adelaide West, the sign you still see today.

In June 1995, Cieslok’s Danny Starnino obtained this permit to remove the illegal fascia sign and paint an illuminated third party mural on this site:

Notice the words “remove fascia sign” on the permit document. This indicates that the illegal fascia sign we see today is over 12 years old. At the time this permit was obtained, separation requirements were not required between roof signs and mural signs but they were required between roof signs and vinyl fascia signs.

Here’s where it gets a little interesting. Shortly after that mural permit was obtained, somebody stole Mediacom’s lease for the roof sign. That is, they offered the landlord more money than Mediacom was offering. At the time, the roof sign was “conforming”.

But then just a few weeks later City Council instituted separation requirements between mural signs and roof signs. When that became law, all the cards were in the hands of Mediacom. As the roof sign was now non-conforming, the structure could not be removed and replaced by the new leaseholder. After losing the lease, Mediacom played hardball and refused to sell the roof sign structure to the new leaseholder. Mediacom then obtained this permit to remove their roof sign:

Then Mediacom’s Stephen “Don’t Call Me Steve” McGregor wrote this letter to the City:

McGregor’s letter was diligently written. He notes that Mediacom removed its legal roof sign and reminded the City that a new permit for a roof sign “should properly be denied,” and then re-iterated that “Once again, in these circumstances we believe a roof sign at this address is not a permittable use,” just in case the new leaseholder had any ideas. As you can tell, there is no roof sign on this property today. In other words, whoever it is that stole Mediacom’s lease, sure screwed the property owner.

Meanwhile on the MLS front. On December 30, 2005, MLS officer Anthony Bartolo took this photograph of Titan’s illegal fascia sign:

The file then passed to Officer Danny Baird. On January 10, 2006 according to Baird’s notes, he spoke with the property owner, Ron Deliso who informed him that there is a permit “for this type of mural.” On January 12, 2006 Danny Baird looked in the IBMS system and found Starnino’s permit 95-016983, the one that says “remove fascia sign and install illuminated mural.” Danny then wrote “case closed” in his notes:

Later in 2006, the file was transfered to Officer Emilio Perri who issued this Notice of Violation, ordering the sign removed within 14 days:

That order was not complied with and after 12 years the illegal vinyl fascia sign is still there. At least the roof sign is gone thanks to Mr. Starnino. Funny thing is, Starnino was on the City’s Signs By-Law Advisory Committee and should have know the roof sign was about to become non-conforming and should have know Stephen McGregor was not about to play ball.