Toronto votes to approve multiple 'super-sized' billboards in city

Proposed Sign looking west along Highway 401 (rendering provided by applicant to City of Toronto)

Toronto city council has approved an amendment that would allow multiple "super-sized" digital billboards to be erected in the city.

One of the billboards is set to go up up near Leslie Street and the Highway 401 in councillor Shelley Carroll's Ward 17. She said the location is too close to North York General Hospital, as well as residential towers and homes.

"This property sets all sorts of precedents," Carroll said at city council on Wednesday. "It's a precedent on the 401 that we really don't want to entertain."

"You don't want a lot of distractions where there is the busiest nexus of the 404, the don valley parkway, the 401 and three different approaches that get you in different ways into express lanes."

The City of Toronto has a number of bylaws in place regulating billboards, controlling the size and location of the signs.

In this case, the applicant asked the city to amend the bylaw prohibiting third party signs in that area while also asking for permission to erect a larger-than-allowed billboard. The sign face area would be about 62.47 square metres, which the city says is three-times what is typically allowed under the bylaw.

Carroll tried to drum up support for the rejection of the amendments last month in a blog post about the topic. In it, she argued that they could be dangerous and cause a disturbance to residents.

"Now, I don’t really mind these giant digital billboards when they’re out on the 407. There’s such a large green buffer surrounding the highway that they don’t compete with many distractions," she wrote.

"The height of these billboards is important to the applicant, because the taller the installation, the more time cars have to absorb the images from a distance. The problem is that it also means the light from the billboard will cast into more and more residential windows."

Despite her efforts, council adopted the item along with three other similar requests at 55 Beverly Hills Drive, 2025 Wilson Avenue and along the Galt Subdivision rail corridor near Highway 427.

In each case the signs erected would be three-times larger than what is permitted under the current bylaws.

Counc. Gord Perks also urged council not to vote in favour of the signs, arguing that the city has a responsibility to regulate the use of land in the public interest.

"These signs are not in the public interest. These signs put their thumb down on the scale of the sign companies and overwhelm the interests of residents."