Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 ::: Street Studies

Today in Street Study, we take a look at the illegal billboards along Dupont Street, Toronto’s finest industrial road. We’ll begin at Avenue Road and Davenport where Astral Media is operating this illegal fascia sign at 149 Dupont Street:

A mural permit was issued but later revoked at this location. The sign requires multiple variances for facing a street, exceeding the roof line of the building and being within 60 metres of another billboard. Charges were laid against High Point Investments Limited, the property owner on May 18, 2007.

You can see Titan Outdoor’s illegal fascia sign at 359 Davenport Road from the Dupont/ Davenport Road intersection - that’s the illegal sign regarding which Paul Seaman of Clear Channel Outdoor filed a complaint with MLS. Unlike 149 Dupont, 359 Davenport has a valid, cleared mural permit and we would expect a mural at that location to be maintained after the vinyl is gone.

On 272 Dupont Street, at Spadina Road, Titan is operating this illegal fascia sign on a non-illuminated mural permit:

The mural permit appears to be valid, but for a smaller sign. A mural at this spot would certainly be profitable and is likely the be operated after the vinyl is gone.

At 346 Dupont Street, we filed a complaint against this Titan Outdoor fascia sign:

Our position is that the sign violated the Ontario Building Code since it exceeds the maximum wall coverage for a plastic-facing sign for a wall that contains a window in a building that is not sprinklered. Unfortunately, the Buildings Department is not reporting on our complaint in their semi-annual report to Licensing and Standards Committee so we don’t know whether their interpretation is consistent with ours.

At Bathurst and Dupont, Astral Media is operating this illegal roof sign on 488 Dupont, which was recently upgraded to tri-vision:

We discussed this sign in Astral Media Obtains Illegal Permit for Dupont/Bathurst Roof Sign where we noted that Astral obtained a permit to build the sign within 60 Metres of another of their billboards contrary to the by-law. The sign is also higher than the 10 metres from grade permitted in the by-law.

The beer store at 500 Dupont Street contains two Pattison Pillars:

One of these signs is illegal, the sign in the background. The other sign obtained a variance. We are waiting for a Notice of Violation to be issued.

At the south-west corner of Dupont and Christie is 672 Dupont Street upon which is Pattison’s illegal billboard.

We wrote about building inspector Kelso’s screw-up in Building Inspector Kelso Botches Inspection of Illegal Billboard Permit at 672 Dupont Street. There are a few Kelsos employed in the Buildings Department. This sign can’t be seen from Dupont - it targets southbound Christie traffic.

Onto Ossington Avenue, where the Public Storage building at 934 Dupont Street sports two illegal Pattison signs. There are a total of three Pattison ground signs on this lot. All three signs can be seen in this aerial photograph:

The one and only third party sign permit ever issued to 934 Dupont Street was issued to Pattison in 1995. The permit allowed two ground sign, the sign currently located at the easterly end of the property, and one sign located “2 feet” from the Ossington property line, according to this approved plan:

You will take a close look at the approved location and the current signs and note that both signs along the Ossington frontage are not accounted for in the approved plan. Both signs along Ossington are therefore illegal. The reporting to L+S committee on this sign states “Waiting for building permits to arrive.”

We wrote about 950 Dupont Street in our very first Ad Nauseam, Ad Nauseam: 950 Dupont Street.

The property contains two ground signs and one fascia sign. The fascia sign is illegal. A Notice of Violation was issued against that sign on February 19, 2008. We have submitted our opinion that the ground sign along the Dovercourt frontage is illegal on account of the fact that it obtained a permit for parallel faces, and a v-faces were built in a manner that obstructs windows. That complaint is currently “under investigation”.

This Strategic Media’s illegal at 1136 Dupont Street:

The sign was subject to a Notice of Violation dated November 23, 2007. It was removed and never re-erected.

Also at Dupont and Dufferin, Astral Media is operating a double-sided sign on a single sided permit:

For more information please see Illegal Astral Media Back-Up at Dupont and Dufferin.

We wrote about 1292 Dupont Street in The 1292 Dupont Street Roof Sign: Can Sid Catalano Tell the Truth?:

We are still asking ourselves that question. An Order to Comply was issued against the sign on April 16, 2007. A so-called “demand letter” was issued on March 6, 2008. The Buildings Department is currently sitting on the file hoping we go away.

At Dupont and the railway tracks, a Pattison 10×20 was recently removed to accommodate the conversion of the building to condos. That sign will be the subject of a Building Boom shortly.

At 1475 Dupont Street, Pattison is illegally orientating this billboard:

The sign obtained a permit to have a sign face parallel to Dupont Street at a time when the by-law specified that two billboards could be located within 60 Metres of each other but only if they had perpendicularly-orientated faces.

We wrote about that sign as well as the pillar at Dupont and Symington in Pillar Legalized at Dupont and Symington But Pattison has Another Problem Down the Street. Upon further reflection we made a serious error when we said that Pattison legalized their pillar by moving it off the road allowance, where it was permitted to be, and onto private property:

Pattison moved the sign onto private property without obtaining a new permit. We are of the opinion that Pattison could not rely upon the original permit for this sign. We’re pretty sure that MLS will agree with us and order Pattison to entirely remove the sign.

Finally, we took a look at Pattison’s legal sign at Dupont and Perth in Ad Nauseam: Billboards that Obscure and Crowd-Out First Party Signage.

That’s it for Dupont Street.