Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 ::: Screw-Ups

The Urban Outdoor 10′x23′ backlight in the foreground is located at 333 College Street, and the Pattison 10′x20′ in the background is located at 297 College:

The signs are located within 57 metres of each other. The lot line of 297 College Street is drawn such that the Pattison sign cannot be located more than 60 metres from the Urban sign without being on a different lot:

The Urban sign obtained a permit by way of this permit application filed by David Mackie on April 1, 1995:

The Pattison sign obtained  a permit by way of this permit application filed by Gino “not the Pizza Man” Colarusso of Pattison on October 2, 1995, six months after the Urban permit:

In this document, Colarusso attested that his sign was not located within 60 metres facing the same street as any other third-party ground sign:

Note that that document was dated October 2, 1995. Now let’s find out when David Mackie’s Urban 10′x23′ was built. Here are the building inspector’s notes for Urban’s permit:

The notes say:

May 19/ 95: not started

May 30/95: not started

July 2/95: not started

Sept 6/95: sign framing installed- need S/Report

Oct 18/95: Sign completed - need plans

Now Urban Outdoor is the only company that builds 10′x23′ aluminum sign boxes that sit on galvanized steel structures, and Colarusso knows that, but it could be that Gino Colarusso just made an honest mistake.

In any case, he’s gotten away with it for 13 years because nobody at the City of Toronto has been paying attention to our laws.

Another problem with the Gino sign is that it is required to bet set back by 0.6 metres from the north property line of 297 College Street. Unlike the Urban sign, which is properly set back, the Pattison sign is not. Gino’s been sloppy like that all over town.

And speaking of the Pizza Man, Pattison Outdoor is now repping the Pizza Man’s illegal highway signs, though they haven’t had much luck selling space on them.