8 Video Screen Billboards Proposed for QEW
Media Release, June 5, 2009
Billboard Companies Flooding City With Variance Applications to Avoid New Community Notification Procedures
Applications to build four double-sided LED video screens along the QEW will be heard by Etobicoke York Community Council on a delegated basis on June 9. In addition, five other QEW billboards are up for approval at the same meeting, three of which were already built without any permits.
The proposed eight LED screens would be 672 square feet – four times larger than any video screen currently on the Gardiner Expressway and nine times larger than a screen recently approved at Weston Road and St. Phillips. The LED screens would flash every few seconds showing a new advertisement.
“These LED screens would turn the QEW into a danger zone. They would be the most conspicuous and distracting things on the QEW. City Councillors should know that every one of their constituents in Etobicoke York will see these signs and they would know who to blame,” says Rami Tabello, coordinator of IllegalSigns.ca.
The City’s 2006 “Policy on Donations to the City for Community Benefits” prevents City Councillors from negotiating a community benefit “concurrent to” a sign variance approval.
Lobby Registration documents indicate former City Councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski was retained by Pattison Outdoor to lobby west-end Councillors. “We would not be surprised if Mr. K-K already has the votes to get these screens approved,” says Mr. Tabello. “Somebody more powerful than Mr. K-K needs to step in and stop this.”
“What we have here is a feeding frenzy of variance applications for billboards on the QEW because Community Council has a poor record of making sound planning decision for billboards along the highway. Councillors need to take a step back and ask themselves if they are keen on the de-facto elimination of all sign restrictions on the QEW,” says Tabello, who notes that the City’s new signs by-law would contain a community notification provision but applications made in advance of the new by-law can skirt those provisions.
The proposed signs are located in the wards of Councillors Mark Grimes and Peter Milczyn.
Media Contact: Rami Tabello, Coordinator, IllegalSigns.ca
E-Mail: info {at} illegalsigns(.)ca
Phone: 416.822.3696
359 Palmerston Boulevard
Toronto, Ontario M6G 2N5
LINKS TO STAFF REPORTS:
10 wickman Road [LED Billboard, Ward 5, Milczyn]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-2420.pdf
1635 The Queensway [LED Billboard, Ward 5, Milczyn]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21360.pdf
29 Algie [LED Billboard, Ward 5, Milczyn]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21362.pdf
2 Wickman Road [LED Billboard, Ward 6, Grimes]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21448.pdf
44 Zorra [Illegally Built Billboard, Ward 5, Milczyn]]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21359.pdf
16 Arnold [Illegally Built Billboard, Ward 6, Grimes]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21366.pdf
1631-1633 The Queensway [New Standard Billboard, Ward 5, Milczyn]]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21361.pdf
200 Evans [New Standard Billboard, Ward 6, Grimes]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21363.pdf
660 Evans [Illegally Built Billboard, Ward 6, Grimes]
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-21364.pdf
Policy on Donations to the City for Community Benefits
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/council/cc060925/pof7rpt/cl003.pdf
June 8th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I have to commend you for your website - it gives a very interesting look into 3rd party advertising signs - which are a problem everywhere. My only problem with your site is that you forget that everyone can apply for a permit; even if they’ve built after the fact. While many people don’t like it - it is their right to do so. Granted, we (as planners) would prefer they apply before hand.