The De-signer Guys

Who says you can't fight city hall? The Billboard Battalion shows the power of petition

When Cineplex Galaxy proposed installing two 400-square-foot video advertising screens next to the Gardiner Expressway, the battle to stop them seemed unwinnable. Despite strong recommendations from city staff that the V-shaped billboard be denied, the Etobicoke York community council approved the application with only one dissenting vote.

"It looked like drivers would see these screens when they were three quarters of the way along the on-ramp, which is perhaps a time when someone should be paying attention to the road," public space activist Alison Gorbould says. "But Peter Milczyn, the ward councillor, said he didn't buy the safety argument."

The final decision on whether to grant Cineplex the right to advertise future Hollywood blockbusters to drivers stuck in gridlock rested with the entire city council, which postponed voting on the decision for months. Gorbould and the group she helps lead, the aptly named Billboard Battalion, didn't give up. The gang of letter writers inundated councillors with emails. In December 2005, the giant video screen was denied.

Supporters of the billboard were distressed. "I think council made the wrong decision, perhaps for the wrong reason," Milczyn later told The Globe and Mail about the vote.

Gorbould was ecstatic: "I sent an email to the crew saying, 'Those wrong reasons, that's us, baby! We had unprecedented levels of response on this one and, rest assured, it did not go unnoticed.'"

If there's one thing that members of the Billboard Battalion have learned, it's that good, old-fashioned letter-writing can make a difference. Since the Billboard Battalion -- a campaign of the Toronto Public Space Committee that's attracted over 100 members -- sprang to action a year ago, the group has grown to play a large role in the decisions made about billboards at city hall. While some go to meetings to state their opposition to specific proposed billboards at community councils once a month, most in the Battalion take action from the comfort of their own home.

"I've learned that a two-line email can work," says fellow BBer Stewart Russell, a wind-farm developer from Scarborough who describes himself as "your average armchair inactivist."

Councillors have taken note. "We don't have a notification process or a circulation process [for billboard applications], and so the Public Space Committee is taking it upon itself to review all these applications," explains councillor Joe Mihevc. "Funny enough, the ones that they oppose, certainly in the downtown area -- about 90 per cent of them get rejected."

The city already has strict bylaws governing where billboards can go, how large they can be and how far they can be from each other. Rooftop billboards, for example, are mostly technically illegal. If someone wants to erect a sign that doesn't adhere to the existing laws, they can request a variance -- an exemption from the bylaw. In the past, applications for billboards that contradicted the bylaw were rarely discussed or debated, no matter how big, bright and obtrusive they were. Usually, councillors approved them without a second thought.

"The whole reason for a variance is for something that's just technically outside the bylaw, but still within the spirit of it," Gorbould explains. "The way variances are being used is to say, 'OK, I know we're not allowed to have any rooftop billboards, but I'd like to have one anyway.' The answer used to always be yes, because no one was paying attention, because no one really cared."

According to Gorbould's records, of the 30 variance applications the Battalion deputed in the last year, council refused 18, while two were withdrawn. In 2004, before the Battalion got started, council approved 74 per cent of all applications. When staff recommended a sign be refused, their advice was ignored 75 per cent of the time.

The question on Gorbould's mind is this: why bother having bylaws if we're not going to enforce them? It's a question echoed by other groups around the city -- neighbourhood organizations frustrated with developers being granted more storeys for new condos than bylaws allow; residents angry that the city allowed another bar on their street when there's already more than the city's plan permits; or homeowners upset that their neighbour was given permission to cut down trees.

"We have bylaws and we have them for a reason," says Gorbould. "If councillors don't like them, they should change them. It's ridiculous, using these loopholes in order to completely flout the city's plan."

What's different is the Billboard Battalion's success in forcing councillors to consider their decisions more carefully -- at least those involving applications for billboards. "There's a new consciousness now among councillors that there's a public out there that is feeling that it's just a bit much," Mihevc says. "There's advertising on our subways and our buses and our platforms, along our streets and in our elevators -- when do we have a chance to be free from it?"

Ron Nurwisah, an editor at the Torontoist.com city blog who makes frequent deputations against variance applications at community council meetings, has witnessed change among councillors first hand. "The past couple of months, we haven't had to fight as hard for many of them," he says. "I think that's a sign that we're doing something right. But that doesn't mean that there aren't still issues."

One challenge is that many companies put signs up illegally and the city's records are a mess -- they have no idea how many signs are illegal, and figuring out which ones have a permit proved so complicated, they ended up calling the Toronto Public Space Committee for help.

Problems still exist, but unlike many other hard-working groups, the Billboard Battalion can see the results of their labour. "The Billboard Battalion is one of the great introductions to activism in general," Gorbould says. "There are tonnes of people on our list who aren't activists and would never consider themselves one. They start getting the updates saying we beat this billboard and they start saying, 'Wait a minute, I can have an effect.' It really does change your perspective. I think there could be 18 battalions on 18 different issues."

Sara Lipson sends three to five emails a month to city councillors for the Battalion. "When you start to involve yourself in city issues, you hear of a lot of opportunities to take your own thoughts and opinions, voice them and then watch your words ricochet through meeting minutes and into project recommendations," she says. "You lose sight of them until one day you're looking around at the city and you notice it looks a lot more like your dream and less like someone else's."EMAIL LETTERS@eye.net.

ILLUSTRATION ADAM HARRIS