Town of Oakville Appeals Ontario Superior Court Decision to Quash Signs By-Law
The Town of Oakville, Ontario is appealing an Ontario Superior Court decision quashing the Town’s signs by-law and ordering the Town to issue 11 permits for 80 square foot third party signs to Vann Media. The court held Oakville’s heavy restrictions on signs to be a de-facto ban on billboards. And it was – no billboards were developed in Oakville since the passing of the law. It remains to be seen whether Vann Media will build their mini-billboards. Vann was asking for 86 signs on 52 properties and they obtained an order directing Oakville to issue permits for the 11 worst locations. Here is the decision:
The Town has since obtained an order staying the judgment of Justice Gray in its entirety, pending the final outcome of the appeal which is scheduled to be heard for a full day on May 15, 2008, which is in the week the Titan trial is scheduled to be heard.
Why this doesn’t help Titan Outdoor’s lawsuit against Toronto: The Court made a big deal about the fact that Oakville allows third party signs on transit shelters. There is of course a big difference between Oakville’s street furniture program and the City of Toronto’s. Toronto’s street furniture program is rationally connected to the same objectives of the signs by-law – separation distance between advertising. It will therefore be very difficult for Titan Outdoor to apply this case to its lawsuit against Toronto since what Titan is seeking is the elimination of separation distances for vinyl fascia signs.
Prior to Toronto’s Street Furniture contract with Astral Media, Toronto had advertising on shelters, benches, gargage bins and pillars. The new contract eliminates advertising on benches and bins and institutes separation requirements between advertising elements, just like the signs by-law. For these reasons, the decision of the US District Court in Metro Lights LLC vs. City of Los Angeles will also be of no use to Titan. The Metro Lights decision invalidated Los Angeles’ complete ban on third party signs because of the monopoly granted Viacom for transit shelters.
Note that Toronto’s Street Furniture contract does not grant Astral Media a monopoly on third party advertising since third party ads can be placed on about 2000 postering kiosks that Astral must install; and Titan is free to place their ads on the kiosks. Toronto’s Street Furniture plan was specifically designed to allow its signs by-law to withstand freedom of expression challenges.
Furthermore, because the Street Furniture program is exempt from the signs by-law, this actually makes the signs by-law more permissive because it means that billboards do not have to meet separation requirements from transit shelter signs. Billboards can be erected immediatly adjacent to transit shelters if they meet the other requirements of the law. If Street Furniture was subject to the signs by-law, that would decrease the as-of-right permissions Titan Outdoor could obtain.
As for Oakville, in 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Town’s restriction on billboards when it ruled that the Town could restrict the size of third party signs to 80 square feet. The Ontario Court of Appeal had previously ruled that the Town’s complete ban on third party signs was unconstitutional. That ban was not appealed to the Supreme Court (only the quashing of the size restriction was), and this court decision says that Oakville’s current by-law which restricts signs to E2 industrial zones and only with severe setback requirements is a de-facto ban and therefore violates the Court of Appeal decision.
Shockingly, the 11 permits Vann is entitled to under this ruling would not have to comply with any setback or height requirements. In fact the court ruling says that the signs would not have to comply with any provisions of the signs by-law except that they must be located in E2 zones and they must not be greater than 80 square feet. The court didn’t specify the number of signs Vann is entitled to – some of the 11 permits are for more than one sign.
Vann Media is run by Anthony Annunziata and Larry Vann. Larry Vann is known for slamming municipalities with simultaneous permit applications for tens of signs. He once applied for so many permits to erect 14′x48′ signs in Mississauga that the City held an emergency City Council meeting and amended the by-law to outlaw 14′x48′s.
This Astral Media 10′x20′ at 126 Lakeshore Road East is the only billboard in Oakville:
It is curious that the permit for this 200 square foot sign was issued to Leroy Cassanova in 2005, after the new signs by-law restricting the size of third party signs to 80 square feet was implemented. Here is the permit:
