SUPPORTS ITEM 2
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
JULY 25, 1996
POLICY REPORT
DEVELOPMENT AND BUILDING
Date: June 28, 1996
Dept. File No. 2851
TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment
FROM: Director of Land Use & Development
SUBJECT: Billboards (Proposed Amendment to the Sign By-law)
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to prepare
an amendment to the Sign By-law to no longer permit new
billboards in the city, and that the By-law be referred to a
Public Hearing, together with the recommendation of the
Director of Land Use & Development to approve the amendment;
and
B. THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to prepare
an amendment to the Sign By-law generally in accordance with
Appendix A:
i) to simplify and clarify the regulations which permit
billboards in the city;
ii) to not allow billboards on eight CD-1 zoned sites near
False Creek and Coal Harbour;
iii) to not allow billboards near residential premises in
Downtown South and Burrard Slopes, and to provide for
removal of billboards as residential redevelopment
occurs in these areas; and
iv) to not allow billboards on Robson Street east of Jervis
Street;
and that the By-law be referred to a Public Hearing.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A
and B, noting that approval of both will refer two alternative
by-laws to Public Hearing.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council policy, as reflected in the Sign By-law, is to allow billboards
in several commercial and all industrial zoning districts, subject to
location, spacing, height and size restrictions.
Council policy with respect to billboards on City-owned sites
controlled by Real Estate Services is to permit renewal of existing
billboard leases but not to enter into any new leases.
SUMMARY
Staff, in consultation with representatives of the billboard industry,
have provided Council with amended regulations which would continue to
allow new billboards in the city. Some of these regulations are more
restrictive, others more permissive, than the current regulations, but
most are intended to simplify the billboard regulations in order to:
- allow applications to be processed more efficiently;
- drastically reduce (if not eliminate) the time-consuming
discussions needed to explain staff interpretations of the
billboard regulations to the billboard industry;
- ensure that all applications are treated equitably; and,
- enable the regulations to be enforced and withstand a legal
challenge.
As much as possible, the revised regulations attempt to achieve the
same objectives as the existing regulations. These include minimizing
the visual impact of billboards on the city as a whole, and on
residential districts. The revised regulations are also intended to
phase out billboards in Downtown South and Burrard Slopes as these
areas redevelop into primarily residential neighbourhoods.
The revised regulations do not attempt to eliminate the inconsistency
in the Sign By-law regulations which allow billboards to be bigger than
other permitted signs, and constructed in locations where business
identification signage is not permitted. It is staff's concern about
this inconsistency, as well as the use of public streets for
advertising purposes and the impact of billboards on the image of the
city, that leads staff to still favour Recommendation A, the banning of
new billboards. However, in response to Council's wish to have more
options to consider, staff also recommend B, that revised regulations
to continue to permit billboards be forwarded to Public Hearing. The
revised regulations put forward in Recommendation B have been drafted
in consultation with representatives of the billboard industry.
Although billboard industry representatives are generally agreeable to
the revised regulations put forward in Recommendation B being referred
to Public Hearing, they are concerned about the additional restrictions
proposed to be placed on billboards in Downtown South and Burrard
Slopes, and on Robson Street. If Council does not share staff's
concern about billboards in the emerging residential neighbourhoods of
Downtown South and Burrard Slopes, or on Robson Street, Council could
refer the amendments in Recommendation B to Public Hearing without
B(iii) and B(iv). If Council does refer Recommendation B to Public
Hearing in its entirety, Council would still have the opportunity to
delete (or amend) the proposed regulations at Public Hearing based on
representations made at the Hearing.
PURPOSE
This report presents revised regulations which would continue to allow
new billboards in the city. These are recommended for referral to
Public Hearing, as is a by-law amendment to prohibit new billboards,
which staff favour.
BACKGROUND
On November 14, 1995, when dealing with a report dated October 20, 1995
recommending that new billboards no longer be permitted in the city,
Council deferred the report to allow Council an opportunity to consider
the matter further. Council also requested that staff report back on
any billboard applications received in the meantime.
Nine billboard applications were filed following November 14th.
However, they were subsequently withdrawn, and all three billboard
companies agreed not to submit any new applications until they had
responded to staff's concerns in the October 20, 1995 report, and the
issues were resolved by Council. At time of writing of this report,
there are no outstanding billboard applications. The applications for
a Judicial Review of the refusal of three billboard applications were
also withdrawn.
DISCUSSION
Staff's concerns with the billboard regulations in the Sign By-law were
outlined in the October 20th report, attached as Appendix B. These
concerns can be summarized as:
1. application processing and by-law enforceability problems due to
ambiguous wording of the regulations and an increasing trend for
the billboard industry to appeal or challenge staff's
interpretation;
2. the visual impact of billboards on the image of the city, and
increasingly on residents in mixed-use districts; and
3. the inconsistency of Sign By-law regulations which allow
billboards (third-party advertising signage) in locations and of a
size not permitted for first-party business identification
signage.
The revised regulations put forward in this report primarily address
the concerns in 1 and 2 above. The revised regulations do not address
the third concern. This concern can only be resolved by either a
prohibition of billboards, or revisions to the regulations which apply
to other signs to allow them the same size and location options. The
latter would require a review of Sign By-law objectives and underlying
principles. This would be a significant undertaking beyond Planning
staff's current work program.
Setback Regulation [Sec. 10.3.2(b) of Sign By-law]
The setback regulation requires that a billboard not be located closer
to a street than:
1. the front face of the nearest building; or
2. beyond a straight line drawn between the nearest points of any two
separate building faces fronting the street when the billboard is
located between the two buildings.
The intent of this regulation is to prevent a billboard from being in
front of a building where it could block business identification
signage (which is generally located on the front of a building) and
detract from the building itself. Application of this regulation is
shown in the following illustration.
There are several problems with this regulation:
1. Front face is not defined in the By-law, and staff's
interpretation that the front face is any portion of the building
which faces the street was one of the interpretations for which a
Judicial Review application was filed. (The building on the left
in the above illustration has its front face in two locations but
both are, in staff's interpretations, a front face. A billboard
application was refused on this interpretation. The refusal was
challenged on the grounds that the portion of the building which
faces the street but which is set back further from the street
than the rest of the building is not a front face.)
2. On corner sites, the determination of whether a building has one
or two front faces for the purpose of applying this regulation has
been difficult.
3. There is no limit to how far afield the regulation applies if the
billboard is located between two buildings which are a
considerable distance from each other.
Revised wording is proposed which would apply the regulation only to
billboards located within 20 m of a building face which fronts a street
and contains a pedestrian entrance.
Although the revised regulation is less restrictive in that it would
apply only to billboards located within 20 m of a front face containing
a pedestrian entrance, it should ensure that no billboard is in front
of any such face, and would set a reasonable limit on the distance to
other buildings used to determine setback from the street.
Single-Faced Billboard Regulation [Sec. 10.3.2(c) of Sign By-law]
The single-faced billboard regulation requires that a billboard with
only one face (as opposed to a double-faced billboard with two sides
mounted back to back) be located not more than 2 m from the wall of a
building and be parallel to such wall, except that this distance may be
increased to 7.5 m where the structural components on the back face are
concealed.
The intent of this regulation is to minimize unsightly views of the
back side of a billboard by requiring it to be close, and parallel, to
the wall of a building.
To get around this regulation, and another regulation which requires a
billboard to be 60 m from a residential district measured
perpendicularly to the face of the billboard, an application was filed
for a double-sided billboard where the second side, for all practical
purposes, was not visible (see illustration).
Staff refused the application (and the refusal was upheld by the Board
of Variance) on the basis that the billboard was not considered to be
double-sided since the second side was not a sign as defined in the
Sign By-law. However, staff recognize that this refusal may not
withstand a court challenge.
Staff have not been able to come up with revised wording which would
achieve the original intent of the By-law, withstand a court challenge,
and not be significantly more restrictive. (This is because it is
impossible to be absolutely definitive about what constitutes a
double-sided billboard - i.e., one in which both sides can be
effectively viewed from a street, lane or another site.) Consequently,
staff recommend that the requirement that a single-faced billboard be
parallel to, and within 7.5 m of, a wall be dropped, in favour of a
simpler regulation that requires that the structural components on the
back side of any single-faced billboard be concealed. Staff feel the
revised regulation essentially achieves the same objective by ensuring
that the back side of a billboard is not unsightly.
90 m Spacing Regulation [Section 10.3.2(d) of Sign By-law]
The 90 m spacing regulation requires that the spacing between
billboards on the same street, facing the same traffic flow, be not
less than 90 m, measured along the street.
The intent of this regulation is to control the visual impact of
billboards by not allowing several to be viewed at the same time by
traffic travelling in the same direction.
Of all the billboard regulations, this one has caused the most
interpretive problems over the past five years. Staff and the industry
do not agree on what is meant by "facing the same traffic flow", with
the industry arguing at one point that a billboard placed parallel to a
street does not face any traffic flow, unless it is close to a corner
(see illustration).
There have also been numerous disagreements on the determination of
what street a proposed billboard is located on. On corner sites, with
the multitude of ways in which billboards can be placed and angled in
order to obtain their best exposure to traffic, it is not possible to
effectively apply this regulation and achieve its intent.
Two refusals of applications based on staff's interpretation of the 90
m spacing regulation were challenged as part of the three Judicial
Review applications.
Staff and the industry agree that there should be a spatial separation
between billboards to prevent a proliferation of billboards at one
location. However, staff and the industry were not able to draft a
revised regulation which takes into account the orientation and
visibility of billboards to the traffic, is easy to understand and
administer, and is not a potential source of future interpretation
disagreements. Consequently, staff and the industry agree that the
regulation be replaced by a simple spatial separation of 50 m between
billboards. This is a slightly bigger separation than the 45 m that
applies to free-standing signs that are not billboards located on the
same site. Although it will allow billboards to be closer to each
other than they are now in some instances (e.g., billboards on the same
street facing the same traffic flow will be allowed to be 50 m apart,
rather than the current 90 m), it will be more restrictive in other
instances (e.g., billboards on corner sites, or on the same street
facing opposite traffic flow, will be required [with one exception] to
be 50 m apart regardless of which street they are on or which traffic
flow they face).
Although billboard industry representatives agree that the new spacing
regulation will open up some new opportunities primarily outside of the
downtown, they are concerned about the impact of the new regulation in
the downtown where the concentration of existing billboards is already
the greatest, and where other new restrictions in Downtown South and on
Robson Street are also proposed.
Residential Spacing Regulation [Sec. 10.3.2(e)(i) of Sign By-law]
The residential spacing regulation requires that a billboard not be
located closer than 60 m to any residential zoning district.
The intent of this regulation is to protect residential neighbourhoods
from the impact of these large signs, which are lit at night.
In recent years, more residential development has occurred in
commercial districts which allow billboards, or across from commercial
or industrial districts which allow billboards. Staff have received a
few complaints where billboards have been constructed across from
residential premises.
To reduce the impact of billboards on residential premises, staff
considered applying the 60 m setback to existing residential premises,
rather than residential zoning districts. Staff also considered no
longer allowing billboards in Downtown South, the Burrard Slopes C-3A
District, and on a number of sites rezoned from Downtown District to
CD-1 to allow residential development. However, billboard industry
representatives strongly felt that application of the 60 m setback to
existing residential or no longer allowing billboards in the areas
listed above would so severely limit new billboard locations as to
constitute a virtual ban. Consequently, staff have not put forward
these amendments.
Staff are, however, recommending a regulation be added for Downtown
South and Burrard Slopes which would not allow a billboard within 30 m
of a site containing residential premises, and would require a
billboard in these areas to be removed when residential redevelopment
occurs within 30 m of the billboard. This is a similar provision to
one that now applies to the BCPED zoning district. The removal clause
was offered by the industry as a compromise for the amendments that
staff considered. However, the removal clause does not make sense
without applying the same 30 m setback to existing residential
premises.
The industry is agreeable to prohibiting billboards on eight CD-1 sites
located in Granville Slopes and the False Creek North and Coal Harbour
lands. These sites, including the Bayshore, previously did not allow
billboards but were inadvertently allowed them when the sites were
rezoned to CD-1 and assigned to the Downtown District for purpose of
sign regulation.
While staff still feel that billboards, due to their size, are not a
desirable outlook for residential development, staff accept the
billboard industry's concern with a blanket residential setback
requirement because of the significant amount of residential
redevelopment occurring in commercial areas. If Council wishes to
continue to allow billboards and provide for reasonable opportunities
for new billboard locations to replace those lost to redevelopment,
staff feel that the proposed regulations which would apply only to
commercial areas that are intended to become predominantly residential
is a reasonable compromise. Though the regulation would not apply to
existing billboards (nor would a ban), it would not allow new
billboards in very close proximity to existing or future residential
development in the emerging residential neighbourhoods of Downtown
South and Burrard Slopes. Staff caution Council, however, that without
industry cooperation and compliance, the removal clause will require
significant staff resources to enforce.
Roof Line Regulations [Sec. 10.3.3(b) and (c)]
The height of a billboard is regulated by a height maximum in metres
and also by restrictions which limit it to the height of front, side
and rear building roof lines on the same site and on adjacent sites.
The intent of the roof line regulations is to reduce the visual impact
of billboards by keeping them to the height of adjacent buildings.
There are several problems with the roof line regulations. The
definition of roof line in the Sign By-law applies only to front roof
lines, and on a very large site such as Hastings Park, the lowest roof
line on the site determines the maximum height of a billboard.
Staff recommend that the roof line regulations specific to billboards
be dropped. The general regulation in the Sign By-law which applies to
all signs and prohibits signs above the front roof line of a building
would remain in effect and apply to billboards. However, staff are
aware of a problem with this general regulation and recommend that it
be resolved as part of these amendments.
At present, the general regulation does not specify how close to a
building a sign must be in order for the roof line restriction to
apply. Staff usually apply the general regulation only to signs
attached to a building. Staff recommend that this regulation be
revised to apply to any sign located within 1 m of the nearest
building.
The net effect of the above amendments would be to make the billboard
height regulations less restrictive, but easier to administer, and more
consistent with regulations that apply to other signs.
Landscaping Regulation (Sec. 10.3.5 of Sign By-law)
The landscaping regulation requires that a landscape planter be
provided and maintained for all vertical billboards (i.e., billboards
placed vertically rather than horizontally). This regulation was added
to the By-law in response to Seaboard Advertising Company's offer that
they would provide a landscape planter for all vertical billboards if
the By-law was amended to allow vertical billboards. Although the
By-law was amended in 1990 to allow vertical billboards and require the
landscape planter, to staff's knowledge no landscape planters have been
provided for the vertical billboards constructed. Permits and Licenses
staff have not been enforcing this regulation. The regulation which
requires that landscaping be provided and maintained to the
satisfaction of the Director of Planning for horizontal billboards has
also not been consistently enforced since neither Planning nor Permits
and Licenses staff have staff resources to administer this provision.
Consequently, staff recommend that this regulation be dropped.
Other Regulations
There are several other regulations applicable to billboards that need
clarification/revision or consequential amendment if Council refers
amendments to Public Hearing to continue to allow billboards
(Recommendation B). These include:
- the definitions of "grade" and "third-party advertising";
- the regulations which limit the maximum number of billboards on a
site to four;
- the regulations which prohibit billboards on portions of Georgia
and Burrard Streets; and
- the elevated entry and exit ramp regulations.
These amendments are included in Appendix A and Recommendation B.
Staff have also added Robson Street, east of Jervis Street, to Georgia
and Burrard Street where billboards are not permitted, due to Robson's
retail character and pedestrian role and linkage to B.C. Place Stadium.
(Billboards are currently not permitted west of Jervis Street.)
Staff have not put forward any amendments to require a proportion of
billboard space to be allocated for "public service" advertising as a
trade-off for the use of public streets for commercial advertising. It
would require significant staff resources to administer and enforce
such a regulation.
Fee Increases
The above amendments to the billboard regulations will simplify the
regulations and reduce processing time. However, billboard
applications will still require site inspections to ascertain the
spacing requirements.
Staff are currently preparing a report for Council on increasing sign
application fees to achieve full cost recovery, and this report will
recommend additional fees for signs that require a site inspection
before a permit can be issued.
Public Input
Since staff recommended the amendment to no longer permit new
billboards in the city, Council has received several letters in support
of billboards and outside advertising, including letters from the
Vancouver Board of Trade and Downtown Vancouver Association. Council
can expect that businesses that advertise on billboards, and charitable
organizations that have benefitted from donated billboard space for
fund-raising endeavours, will vigorously oppose an amendment to ban new
billboards. However, Council should be aware that even with a ban on
new billboards, there will still be advertising opportunities on
existing billboards for some time to come.
Staff have received some, though not many, complaints about billboards
from residents whose apartments overlook billboards, from persons who
dislike large outdoor advertising signage, and from business
representatives who feel that billboards on adjacent sites negatively
affect their businesses.
Billboard Industry Comments
A copy of this report was provided to billboard industry
representatives and their comments are attached as Appendix C. In
summary, the industry:
1. supports referral of Recommendation B to Public Hearing;
2. requests that Council not refer Recommendation A (the ban) to
Public Hearing;
3. notes that:
- the number of billboards is already declining in the city
without a ban;
- many other major Canadian cities allow billboards;
- the industry receives very few complaints about billboards,
and an industry public opinion survey indicates billboards
are not a major public concern; and
- there are valid reasons why billboards are allowed of a size
and in locations not permitted for most other signs.
CONCLUSION
In response to Council's deferral of staff's recommendation to prohibit
new billboards in the city, staff, in consultation with billboard
industry representatives, have prepared amendments to the Sign By-law
which would continue to allow new billboards in most areas where they
are now permitted under simplified regulations. However, Planning
staff continue to believe that the negative aspects of billboards
outweigh their benefits.
Staff's reasons for recommending a ban on new billboards were set out
in the October 20th report, attached as Appendix B. These include:
1. the pressure put on Vancouver for new billboard locations because
no other municipality in Greater Vancouver continues to allow new
billboards;
2. the amount of time needed to explain the billboard regulations to
the industry, process applications and Board of Variance appeals,
and defend interpretation of the regulations and issuance of
permits, at the expense of the processing of other sign permits;
3. Sign By-law regulations which in some respects favour billboards
over business identification signage;
4. the use of the public domain (i.e., streets) for advertising
purposes (billboards being a form of advertising that the public
cannot easily ignore or turn off, as with radio or TV, or not
read, as with newspapers, fliers and magazines);
5. the amount of staff resources committed to careful design review
and control of most new buildings in the downtown and Central
Broadway, while no design control can be placed on billboards,
even though they constitute significant structures and have high
street visibility;
6. the amount of public and private expenditures committed to
improving and enhancing the streetscape;
7. staff's view that billboards detract from pedestrian and
residential environments; and
8. the minimal public benefit (i.e., public service advertising)
provided by billboards.
Staff recommend that both the amendment to prohibit new billboards
(Recommendation A) and the simplified regulations (Recommendation B) be
referred to Public Hearing, but continue to recommend approval of the
prohibition amendment at Public Hearing. If Council does not agree
with the proposed restrictions put forward for Downtown South, Burrard
Slopes and Robson Street in Recommendation B, Council could delete
Recommendation B(iii) and (iv) either at time of referral to Public
Hearing, or at the Public Hearing.
* * * * *
APPENDIX A
Page 1 of 5
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE SIGN BY-LAW
TO CONTINUE TO ALLOW BILLBOARDS
(Underlining indicates revised or new wording, indicates
deletion)
Section 2 Grade means:
(a) for any sign located more than 75 mm from a
street, the elevation of the finished ground
surface directly below a sign, as determined by
the Director; or (b) for any sign abutting or encroaching into a street
or located within 75 mm of a street, the elevation
which is established by the City Engineer for the
surface of the sidewalk or boulevard adjacent to
the sign;
Pedestrian Entrance means a door or entry located on
the first storey of a building used by the public to
enter the premises, but does not include a door used
only by staff, a door used only as an exit from the
premises, or a door to a vehicular parking garage or
loading bay;
Third-Party Advertising means sign content which
directs attention to products sold or services
provided on the premises at which the sign is located
which are not the principal products sold or services
provided on the premises at which the sign is located.
Section 10.3.1 No more than four billboards in respect of any site
shall be permitted, and for this purpose:
(a) two copy areas mounted parallel and back to back
on the same structural support shall be considered
to be one billboard; and
(b) indexing of the copy area is permitted and shall
not affect this number.
Section 10.3.2 (a) (No change);
(b) When any part of a billboard is within 20 m of a
building face which fronts a street excluding a
lane and contains a pedestrian entrance, the
billboard shall be not closer to the street than:
(i) the building face, when there is not more than
one such face fronting the same street; or
APPENDIX A
Page 2 of 5
(ii) a straight line connecting the nearest points of
two such faces fronting the same street;
(c) The back of a single-faced billboard shall be
located not more than 2 m from the wall of a
building and shall be parallel to such wall,
except that this distance may be increased up to
7.5 m where the back face of the billboard is
constructed with an outer finish which conceals
all structural components of the back of the copy
area;
(d) The spacing between billboards on the same
street, facing the same traffic flow, shall be
not less than 50 m, measured along the street
except that this measurement shall not be applied
between two billboards mounted parallel on
opposite sides of a building.
(e) A billboard shall be located no closer than:
(i) 60 m, measured perpendicularly to the copy area
at its midpoint, to any Residential Area as
identified in Section 9.2;
(ii) (no change);
(iii) (no change);
(iv) 15 m to any third-party sign located in a bus
shelter.
Section 10.3.3 The height of a billboard shall not exceed:
(a) 6.25 m where it exceeds 3.7 m in width; or
(b) 7 m where it is 3.7 m or less in width.
(b) the height of the front roof line of any building
on the same site or an adjacent site, with or
without the intervention of a lane, whichever is
less; and
(c) 300 mm above any side or rear roof line of any
building on the same site or an adjacent site,
when the billboard is within 5 m of the building.
Section 10.3.5 A landscaped planter the width of the billboard shall
be provided and maintained for any billboard exceeding
6.25 m in height unless the Director of Planning is
satisfied that suitable landscaping already exists
where the billboard is to be placed. For all other
billboards, landscaping shall be provided and
maintained to the satisfaction of the Director of
Planning.
APPENDIX A
Page 3 of 5
Section 10.3.5 Sections 10.6 and 10.7 do not apply to billboards.
Section 11.1.5 Except as provided in Section 10.6.2(b)(ii), 10.8 and
10.11.3, no sign shall extend above the roof line of
the nearest building located within 1 m of the sign.
Schedule B
Section 1(d) Billboard, except that:
(i) a billboard shall be permitted only in the C-2,
C-2B, FC-1, C-3A, MC-1, M-1, M-1A, M-1B, M-2,
IC-1, IC-2, IC-3, I-1 and DD Districts and all
industrial districts;
(ii) notwithstanding sub-clause (i) above, a billboard
shall not be permitted:
(A) within 50 m of the centre line of West
Georgia Street from Beatty Street to Cardero
Street;
(B) within 50 m of the centre line of Burrard
Street from Pacific Street to Burrard Inlet;
and
(C) within 50 m of the centre line of Robson
Street from Beatty Street to Jervis Street;
(D) above the height of the rail of the ALRT
guideway;
(E) on the following CD-1 sites:
- CD-1 (195) - 1000-1010 Beach Avenue;
- CD-1 (251) - 888 Beach Avenue;
- CD-1 (252) - 901 Beach Avenue;
- CD-1 (265) - International Village;
- CD-1 (312) - 300 Cardero Street;
- CD-1 (321) - 1601-1799 West Georgia and
549 Cardero Streets;
- CD-1 (324) - 800-1100 Pacific Boulevard;
- CD-1 (325) - 800 Beatty Street;
(iii) (no change;)
APPENDIX A
Page 4 of 5
(iv) notwithstanding sub-clause (i) above, in the
areas outlined in Map 1 and Map 2:
(A) a billboard shall be removed by the sign
permit holder within one month of the
issuance of an occupancy permit authorizing
occupancy of a building containing
residential premises located on a site
within 30 m of the billboard; and
(B) a billboard shall not be permitted within
30 m of a site containing a building which
has an occupancy permit authorizing
occupancy of residential premises;
MAP 1
APPENDIX A
Page 5 of 5
MAP 2
Schedule F
Section 1(d) Billboard, except that a billboard shall not be
permitted:
(a) (no change);
(b) above any elevated entry or exit ramp except
where located more than 50 m from such ramp;
(b) within 50 m of any elevated bridge entry or exit
ramp where the billboard exceeds the height of
the ramp;