Real estate board urges Richmond Hill to fix restrictive open house sign bylaw

Yorkregion.com
November 19, 2019
Sheila Wang

The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) hoped “common sense” would eventually prevail at Richmond Hill council after experimenting on an unconventional open house sign bylaw for six months.

TREB, which represents over 54,000 realtors in the GTA, issued a press release Nov. 6 calling on Richmond Hill council to put in place a regular bylaw by removing controversial restrictions on the content of open house signs.

Calling the current bylaw “ill-advised” in the press release, TREB president Michael Collins brought attention to potential violations of the Real Estate and Business Broker Act and possible infringement on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The statement was published after the city withdrew a staff report, which recommended against the current restrictions, from the agenda for a committee of the whole meeting scheduled for Nov. 6.

The staff report was requested last July when council adopted a six-month pilot program to allow open house signs in Richmond Hill, on the condition that the signs omit identifying information such as photos and names of the realtor and brokerage.

The pilot program is set to expire on Nov. 30.

The trial, which has made Richmond Hill the lone GTA municipality to adopt the restrictive open house sign bylaw, has also sparked debates among residents and the real estate community.

Having worked closely with city staff on reviewing the temporary bylaw, TREB was surprise by the staff report's removal from the recent committee agenda, said Von Palmer, TREB's chief communications and government affairs officer.

If council sticks with the restrictive bylaw, “We’ll have to fight it,” Palmer said.

The Liberal reached out the city on Nov. 11 about the missing staff report and received a response two days later explaining that the report was removed “in order to include additional information” and would be added to the agenda of the council meeting slated for Nov. 20.

However, spokesperson Kathleen Graver noted in a followup email on Nov. 14 that a "memo" -- not the staff report -- will be presented at the council meeting instead, in order to request additional time to complete the updates to the report, including a "more comprehensive analysis of bylaws in other municipalities."

In the copy of the original report obtained by the Liberal, staff recommended that the signs would “not be subject to content restrictions” prohibiting realtor and brokerage information.

“We support the report,” Palmer said. “When you read the report, it was actually well-written and well-researched. So, they’ve done their due diligence.”

He noted TREB has had a good relationship with city staff and Coun. David West, whose original motion back in July was intended to permit regular open house signs modelled after Vaughan’s sign bylaw.

The board helped survey member realtors across the region and provided staff with background material on public polling, Palmer said.

The poll results, also cited in the original staff report, showed 83 per cent of Richmond Hill residents approved of the use of open house signs, according to TREB.

With the final decision hanging in the air, Palmer said TREB was prepared to continue to push for a "common sense" sign bylaw if the current restrictions stayed.

He warned of a number of concerns with the current generic signs, such as confusion due to the similar looks, public safety issues and extra workload on bylaw enforcement.

"The brokerage name must be displayed clearly and prominently on a sign", wrote Joseph Richer, RECO’s registrar. "Where signs are generic in nature and do not identify a brokerage or salesperson and simply provide an arrow that points in the direction of an open house, RECO has not taken issue."