Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 ::: North York

Corruption in a Buildings Department is indistinguishable from incompetence in a Buildings Department.

There are so many serious, ongoing improprieties in the way the Buildings Department in North York is issuing and inspecting billboard permits that IllegalSigns.ca is beginning to wonder.

The law is very simple along Highway 401: billboards are completely prohibited within 400 metres of the highway. Every billboard along the highway is illegal. Yet there are about 40 billboards along the highway. About 15 of these signs, we have discovered, are not just first party signs that were illegally converted into billboards.

They are in fact signs operating under permits that were improperly issued by Deputy Chief Building Official Steve Franklin’s department, which repeatedly disregarded the 400-metre law. Not even Toronto City Council has the authority under law to grant a variance to allow a billboard along the provincially-regulated 401. But in a City where bureaucrats take the law into their own hands, a permit to build a billboard along the 401 is worth its weight in gold. So, of course, when we say that the Buildings Department is screwing up when they are issuing and inspecting these permits, we are quite possibly being very kind to the Buildings people.

This photo was taken in the fall of 2007. In the photo, you can see an illegal billboard in the rear of 288 Bridgeland, the Tile Gallery (the Alarm Force sign in the background is also illegal).

This is what it looks like today:

Another illegal billboard went up just last week, which makes it two new illegal billboards in two months for the highway. The new sign is in the rear of 298 Bridgeland. And surprise, surprise, Mr. Franklin’s department issued a permit for the new sign.

The sign does not comply with the North York signs by-law’s provisions for industrial zones in three ways.

• Sentence 5.3.2.8 states that billboards are only permitted on undeveloped land. This lot is developed.
• Sentence 3.3.1 states that signs must comply with “any applicable governmental regulations. The more restrictive provisions of the requirements shall prevail.” Billboards are prohibited within 400 metres of the 401 due to Ministry of Transportation regulations. Even without Sentence 3.3.1, the City does not have the legal jurisdiction to grant permits to construct a sign that violates provincial rules.
• Sentence 5.3.2.1 of the by-law states that: No ground sign shall be permitted on an inside lot or a corner lot which has a street frontage of less than 24.4 metres. 298 Bridgeland has a street frontage of 22.8 metres and therefore does not qualify for even a first-party ground sign.

Mr. Franklin’s department just ignored the laws and issued the permit anyway.

Some municipalities are circumspect when it comes to ineptitude or corruption. Not Toronto. In Toronto, 400 000 people a day can see the ineptitude or corruption along the side of North America’s busiest highway. In Toronto, the ineptitude or corruption can thrive even if it is designed to be seen by the maximum number of people.

Which makes us wonder how they are regulating plumbing permits.