Civic Impact

In 2010, the City of Toronto passed a bylaw limiting the placement of digital billboards to only two locations in the city, Dundas Square and the Gardiner Expressway.

 

For the public space activists of the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC)--vocal critics of electronic billboards--the bylaw's passage was celebrated as a hard-won victory. 

 

But a City of Toronto staff proposal released this past November recommends substantial changes to the 2010 bylaw. And some of TPSC's former members are finding that they may have let their guard down too soon.

 

"We did a lot of work a few years ago with the City on billboard bylaws," says Alison Gourbold, a public space activist and former TPSC organizer. "There was tons of public consultation...and the City decided that based on that and based on the safety data that they would limit the placement of electronic billboards to two specific places in the city. We were pretty happy with the result."

 

In 2011, TPSC officially disbanded (though many of its members and offshoot organizations remain active).

 

"We all went on to other things," says Gourbold. "Unfortunately, in the meantime, the billboard lobby remained active. They never sleep."

 

That's why, despite a desire to move on to new issues, Gourbold's teamed up with former TPSC colleagues Dave Meslin and John Ducharme, to launch Scenic Toronto, a new collective fighting to hold on to the 2010 victories. 

 

The November staff report proposal reccomends allowing large digital billboards in Commercial and Employment areas. It also recommends that "mini" digital billboards be allowed in residential areas. And while the proposal also includes new restrictions (to do with light levels and distance between advertisements), Gourbold worries that these will do little to stop electronic billboards effecting quality of life in residential and commercial areas.  

 

"When the billboard issue came up again we didn't want to get back into it. I don't think that billboards are the most important issue in the whole city, but when we started looking at what the city was proposing it was just so frustrating.

 

"This 40 page [staff report] says things like 'maybe if we allow digital billboards we can control the light levels. Maybe we can make sure they don't go too near to residences.' It's all about mitigating the possible harm. But there's nothing in there about what's in it for the city."

 

City staff informed Gourbold that the impetus behind the new proposal came from councillors who were fed up with having to amend the existing bylaw evey time council wanted to approve an electronic billboard outside the designated areas. 
 

"The councillors got annoyed about all the time the industry was taking up, so they went to the staff and asked them to look into the issue and make some rules."

 

But, says Gourbold, the new rules are a total departure from the 2010 bylaw, yet the aesthetic and safety concerns remain the same. 

 

"The polls show people don't want these [digital billboards] and the evidence shows that are real safety concerns for drivers and that the changing lights coming through windows can be very disruptive."

Gourbold is hopeful that Scenic Toronto can get people to pay attention by the time the recommendations go the Planning and Growth committee in April. They held their first public meeting at City Hall last night. 

 

"At the moment it's just a few activists," says Gourbold. "But we're hoping to get more and more people involved. The only way we can fight a lobby as rich and relentless as these lobbyists is to get a broad coalition of people to pay attention."

 

"If there's no sense that people are watching it's a councillor's best interest to just let the industry do what they want. But if councillors think that people are watching they won't vote for this."