Friday, January 11th, 2008 ::: The 905: Burlington

Currently there are 75 billboards in the City of Burlington. In response to a growing concern from the public and members of Council it has become necessary to address the proliferation of billboards within the community. A number of municipalities across the province have implemented caps on the number of billboards permitted in their community. A cap provides a balance between the interests of the community and the commercial interests of sign companies. Staff are recommending that the City of Burlington impose a cap of 50 billboards, but will allow the existing billboards to remain until they are altered or removed altogether.

The existing by-law allows for a maximum sign area for a billboard of 21.4 m²/face, however, other municipalities, including the Town of Oakville, have restricted the maximum size of billboards to 7.5 m2 with a maximum height of 8 m. Staff is recommending that the size restrictions used by the Town of Oakville also be included in the new sign by-law.

- From a Spring, 2007 Staff Report recommending a new Signs By-Law which killed billboard development in Burlington, Ontario

Randy Otto needs to get a grip on Jim Pattison’s pathetic, lawless advertising company. In April 2007, the City of Burlington, Ontario passed into law a new signs by-law that strictly prohibited billboards. For example, billboards couldn’t be located downtown, couldn’t be larger than 7.5 square metres and had to be set back 4.5 Metres from the street. The by-law was modeled after the Town of Oakville’s law and it pretty much killed billboard development in Burlington since you can’t make much money on a billboard that’s set back 5.5 metres if it’s smaller than 7.5 metres when the industry standard ad-size is 18 square metres.

Another important restriction Burlington put into place was against the removal and replacement of non-conforming signs. Sentence 8.5.1 of Burlington by-law 34-2007 states:

Where a sign has been lawfully erected prior to this By-law coming into force, such sign shall continue to be permitted provided it is not removed, enlarged or structurally altered.

That didn’t stop Pattison Outdoor. In or around November 2007, Pattison Outdoor removed six pillars from municipal parking lots in downtown Burlington. Pattison then replaced the signs with newly designed pillars. The new structures are structureally larger than the signs they replaced by 20%. Like the signs Pattison installed in downtown Toronto, the signs in downtown Burlington don’t have permits either.

Now if the people of Burlington want their downtown to blend in with downtown Toronto, these signs are just the ticket:

This sign is actually set back a proper distance but doesn’t comply with separation requirements to the roof signs in the background:

Meanwhile on December 29, 2007 we wrote Pattison Builds Three Illegal Pillars At Mississauga Beer Stores where we showed you that Pattison removed three existing pillars and replaced them with new signs. Well, according to our research, the existing pillars were illegal. The results of this freedom of information inquiry reveals that no ground sign permits have been issued to 3154 Hurontario and only one ground sign permit was issued to 420 Lakeshore Road East. The Lakeshore permit was for a first party sign.

Burlington photos thanks to Eric N.B. Davies.