City vows to clear A-frame signs from Yonge Street sidewalks

globalnews.com
March 20, 2015
By John R. Kennedy

The City of Toronto is planning to crack down on the proliferation of A-frame signs - those sandwich-board signs placed outside businesses - along Yonge Street.

Joe Magalhaes, district manager of Municipal Licensing and Standards, told Global News on Friday that bylaw enforcement officers will be conducting a sweep in the next two weeks to remove the signs, which are illegal.

“We can show up without notice,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”

Magalhaes said the city has received complaints about A-frame signs on Yonge but hasn’t been able to act due to weather conditions.

“Now that the weather has changed we will be going out and addressing the issue,” he said.

Toronto bylaw 693-24C(9) prohibits A-frame signs on Yonge Street south of Davenport Road (as well as on Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Sherbourne Street).

The city has the authority to confiscate the signs and charge business owners for removal, storage and return of the signs.

On Friday, there were at least 25 A-frame signs on the sidewalks along Yonge Street between College and Bloor Streets and several more between Dundas and Gerrard.

Personal injury lawyer John D. Philp of the Preszler Law Firm said the city would be wise to step up enforcement of the bylaw.

“It would be incumbent on the city to ensure they were not negligent,” said Philp. “At the end of the day, sidewalks are a city responsibility to maintain.”

He said Preszler is currently representing a woman who slipped and fell on an A-frame sign that had fallen over on the Yonge Street sidewalk. She is seeking relief from both the store owner and the city.

A spokesperson for the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area - which includes Yonge Street from Richmond Street to just north of College Street - said the BIA supports enforcement of the bylaw.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose Ward 27 encompasses most of the stretch of Yonge Street covered by the bylaw, could not be reached for comment.

A man who identified himself as the owner of a discount perfume store told Global News he knows A-frame signs are not allowed. He recently replaced a small A-frame sign with one four times bigger.

“If the city comes they will ask me to remove it,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll put it back the next day.”

Asked if he was concerned that his sign blocks nearly a third of the sidewalk, the business owner shook his head. “People can see it.”

Most offenders are small businesses but there are signs for companies like Wind Mobile and H&R Block - and one outside a Canada Post outlet.

While A-frame signs are banned on Yonge Street - one of the busiest streets in the country in terms of pedestrian volume - they are allowed under certain circumstances elsewhere in the city.

Businesses are required to pay about $95 per year for a permit to have an A-frame sign. The application process involves providing proof of commercial liability insurance that names the City of Toronto as an additional insured.

Once a permit is obtained, a single A-frame less than a metre high can be placed up against the building (or on private property) during business hours as long as there is at least 2.1 metres of unobstructed sidewalk space.

The signs are not allowed to be placed at the curb or chained to trees or sign posts.

Only a tiny fraction of the A-frame signs on Toronto sidewalks are legal. In 2013, only 69 permits were issued and in 2012 there were only 41.

According to Clearing Our Path, a publication of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), the “CNIB recommends sandwich boards and freestanding movable signs not be used because they are a tripping hazard for people with vision loss.”

CNIB spokesperson Debbie Gillespie told Global News last year the A-frame signs can also cause disorientation.

“If you’re using a cane, you’re taught to come in contact with objects to help you guide and orient yourself around them,” she explained. “Making it necessary to navigate yourself around the sign causes you to sometimes become disoriented as to where your original line of travel was.”

The biggest concern, Gillespie said, is never knowing exactly where to expect the signs.

“They can be moved or shifted depending on the marketing campaign, depending on the weather and depending on what store has them.”

Though bylaw officers carry out periodic sweeps, enforcement is mostly done in response to complaints from the public via 311.