Sunday, August 10th, 2008 ::: Etobicoke

The two Pattison billboards in the photo are on 296 Rexdale Boulevard, at Martin Grove Road:

MSN Live Map:

The Etobicoke signs by-law does not permit two billboards on the same lot. Here’s how it works: If your lot is entitled to one first-party ground sign, you can build a billboard in lieu of the ground sign, provided it complies with the rest of the by-law. If your lot has frontage on two streets and is entitled to two ground signs, you can still build only one billboard on the lot, but can have an extra first-party sign. Here is Section 215-22 B (2) of the Etobicoke Code, which refers to lots with one tenant [PDF]:

In addition to Subsection B(1) of this section, the sole occupant may erect one ground sign per street frontage, if the site abuts more than one street. A maximum of two ground signs shall be erected on an industrial zoned site that abuts two or more street frontages. A maximum of one standard outdoor advertising ground or roof sign, as regulated under  215-22C, may be installed in lieu of one identification ground sign permitted herein.

Lots with multiple tenants are similarly regulated when it comes to the one-billboard-per-lot rule. So whenever you see a property in Etobicoke with more than one billboard on it, the second billboard is illegal unless it obtained a variance.

Now, let’s take a look at 296 Rexdale Boulevard. 296 Rexdale Boulevard is a lot which has frontage on both Rexdale and Martin Grove and is located northwest of the Sunoco station, which is a longstanding tenant at Martin Grove and Rexdale. It has a “convenience address” of  “1402 Martin Grove” for the Martin Grove frontage. A convenience address does not a separate lot make. Property boundaries are available to the public at map.toronto.ca. The light pink lines are the property lines, the dark pink lines are where the billboards currently reside:

Look carefully and you can see only one billboard in that photo. Compare the 2003 photo to the MSN Maps photo above, and you can see Pattison’s second billboard on the Martin Grove frontage is visible in the MSN Maps photo. This evidence tells us that the second billboard is not “legal non-conforming” in that it did not obtain a permit at a time prior to the Etobicoke by-law being introduced. You will also notice that there is a first-party identification ground sign on the Martin Grove frontage which has not been removed to make way for a billboard, as the by-law requires.

When Pattison Outdoor obtained a permit for the second sign, the one on Martin Grove, it did so under the convenience address “1402 Martin Grove Road”; on Pattison’s web site, it lists the Rexdale-facing sign as 296 Rexdale and the Martin Grove-facing sign as 1402 Martin Grove. We are happy to report that we have now obtained enforcement action against Pattison’s second Martin Grove-facing sign.

All over Etobicoke, we can find illegal second billboards on the same lot, using historic satellite map photos. Let’s now take a look at 230 New Toronto Street:

MSN Live Map:

First let’s make sure the signs are on the same lot and that the signs didn’t pre-exist the by-law. Here is the 2003 satellite photograph:

The light pink property lines tell us that both billboards are on the same lot. That’s a car in the second dark pink box, not a billboard. So we know that the second billboard was built after 2003, which means it required a variance. The best way to check for a variance is a simple Google Search, which comes up negative.

We’re investigating the whole of Etobicoke this way. All of the two-billboard-one-lot infractions in Etobicoke are Pattison signs. These signs are easy pickings.