Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 ::: City of York

The City of York has a signs by-law that places more restrictions on ground signs than on roof signs, much like North York. This entirely goes against current planning thinking with respect to billboards - roof signs are being banned all across Ontario, and ground signs permitted. One of the more restrictive aspects of York’s ground sign regulations is Sentences 16.2.11 and 16.2.12, the setback law, which states:

16.2.11 No part of any off-premise sign structure shall be closer to any street line than the front line of the nearest building within 30 metres. Where no building is located within 30 metres the minimum setback is 7.5 metres.

16.2.12 Where an off-premise sign is erected between two buildings that are within 30 metres of the structure, no part of said structure will be erected closer to any street line than a line drawn from the nearest corner of the two buildings.

This essentially means that a ground sign cannot be built in the front lot of a building. If the lot is vacant, the setback requirement is 7.5 metres. The result is that roof signs are built on developed lots in York, and, because ground signs are allowed to be larger than roof signs, roof signs are built larger than permitted. The other result is that the setback requirements are ignored for ground signs. Case in point, these two CBS Outdoor 10×40 ground signs on railway land at the south end of Jane and St. Clair:

There used to be one non-conforming 10×20 on each side of Jane Street at this location. Then, CBS Outdoor applied for and obtained improperly-issued permits from the Buildings Department to add an additional 10×20 face to each of the signs. 10×40 ground signs are permitted in York so long as they are single-sided (double-sided 10×40s require a special, heavily restricted permit called a “bulletin permit”) but they still must comply with setback requirements. Here are the permits -

The permits do not require the signs to be set back by 7.5 metres from the street line, and we will obtain the revocation of these permits. This 2003 photograph shows the original 10×20s and indicates that they are non-conforming on account of lack of setback from the pink street line:

91-metre separation requirements between signs in York do not apply to signs at grade-separated railway crossings such as these. They do, however, apply to the four Pattison signs nearby, but that’s another blog post.