Item - 2021.PH23.17

The Planning and Housing Committee submits the item to City Council without recommendations as all motions on this item lost.

The Sign By-law is a harmonized, City-wide set of regulations governing signs which was adopted by City Council in 2010. The Sign By-law contains a process for any member of the public to apply to City Council to amend the Sign By-law in order to implement significant changes to the sign regulations for a specific property or area. Applications are commonly made requesting amendments to the Sign By-law to allow signs that are prohibited, to remove permissions for signs in an area, or to modify the administrative requirements of the Sign By-law. The Chief Building Official (CBO) brings applications to amend the Sign By-law together on an annual basis for City Council consideration, so that City Council can more easily assess the overall and cumulative impact of these applications on the city's built environment, and the Sign By-law itself.

This report is in response to an application for an amendment to the Sign By-law to amend the regulations concerning third party signs for the lands municipally known as 2 Strachan Avenue (commonly known as Exhibition Place). Branded Cities', (the "Applicant") application requests that City Council amend the Sign By-law to remove the requirements for Heritage and Toronto Region Conservation Authority approvals related to the replacement of two existing third party ground signs displaying static and electronic readograph copy (the Existing Signs), with two third party electronic ground signs displaying static and electronic static copy (the Proposed Signs). The Existing Signs arose from a 15-year 'Wayfinding Signage Agreement' between the sign owner and Exhibition Place approved by City Council in 2005.

The Proposed Signs would be in the same location as the Existing Signs, along the southern and western portions of 2 Strachan Avenue, and would have the same height, and a slightly reduced sign face area as the Existing Signs.

The property at 2 Strachan has multiple Sign District Designations, with the southern and western portions being designated as an Open Space (OS) Sign District, and the northern portion being designated as part of the Gardiner Gateway Special Sign District (GG-SSD). The Proposed Signs will be located in the southern and western portions of the property in the OS Sign District. (See Figure 3). In 2014, City Council enacted regulations to establish that third party signs were no longer permitted in the portions of 2 Strachan Avenue where the Proposed Signs would be located.

Toronto Building, in consultation with Transportation Services and City Planning, conducted a thorough review of the application, and does not feel that the Applicant's rationale is consistent with the objectives of the Sign By-Law, relevant traffic safety concerns, or the Exhibition Place Master Plan Phase 1 Proposals. For the reasons set out in this report, the CBO does not support amending the Sign By-Law for 2 Strachan Avenue.