City rejects attempt to fix billboard ‘eyesore’

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This article was published 03/01/2018 (2451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For years, it has marred the view of people heading east toward downtown Winnipeg — a soiled, empty canvas propped up on a huge metal frame atop a well-preserved historic building.

At city hall Wednesday night, an application to replace the shabby blank space with art and help a Winnipeg institution was rejected by the board of adjustment.

The billboard space was going to be donated to the Winnipeg Art Gallery to promote exhibits and its new Inuit Art Centre — until its 2020 opening, at least, said Catherine Maksymiuk, WAG manager of media and marketing.

“I think it’s such a win-win… I’m hopeful to hear there’s an appeal process,” Maksymiuk said after the board rejected the application by Sussex Realty Ltd.

The billboard is on top of the Casa Loma apartment building at 650 Portage Ave.

Designated as a “historical resource,” Casa Loma was constructed in 1909. The billboard is thought to have been on top of the building since at least the 1930s, lawyer John Prystanski told the board at the meeting.

The billboard hasn’t been used since 2013. Billboards require conditional-use permits, and the City of Winnipeg says the structure on top of Casa Loma violates zoning bylaws in several ways: it is three times the maximum allowable size for the area, it is in view of nearby residential apartments, it is mounted on a rooftop, and it is on a historic building.

In 2013, the city rejected an application to re-establish billboard poster sign use. In 2014, the appeal committee reversed the decision on the condition a poster be displayed by no later than March 26, 2015. That didn’t happen and the conditional-use permit lapsed.

Now the board has again rejected the application, and the billboard’s owners plan to appeal the decision once again, said Prystanski, a former city councillor who represented Casa Loma’s owner, Sussex Realty, at the meeting.

Winnipeg’s heritage watchdog was there support the plan to let the WAG — and other non-profit groups — use the billboard space.

“We’re here to support something being done because the status quo is not acceptable,” Heritage Winnipeg executive director Cindy Tugwell told the board.

Tugwell said Heritage Winnipeg has received complaints for years about the “eyesore” on top of the heritage building.

“Why isn’t it being used?” she asked. “This massive sign on top of this beautiful building does greatly impede the esthetics of the building.”

Andrew Ross, of the city’s planning, property and development department, said with the billboard’s conditional use being rejected, it will be considered a derelict sign and steps can be taken to have it removed.

However, Tugwell said she’s concerned the sign and its steel frame won’t easily be removed because of the building’s heritage status — and Winnipeggers will be stuck looking at it for many more years to come.

Should the appeal be approved, the Winnipeg Art Gallery stands to benefit from up to five years of free advertising space, said project manager Kris Deslauriers of Sussex Realty.

An engineer’s report found the sign and its metal stand are structurally sound, requiring only “minor safety updates,” he said. “It’s nothing substantial.”

If it loses on appeal, Deslauriers said he’s not sure what Casa Loma will do with the unused billboard and its 3,300-square foot metal frame. “That’s a good question.”

One of the reasons the city’s planning department said it opposed use of the rooftop sign space is billboards are not permitted to be located where they are visible from residential dwellings, due to issues such as the impact of light spilling over. The billboard faces Lions Manor next door, with its 119 units, as well as 325 Sherbrook St., which has eight apartments.

Maksymiuk said the art gallery first approached Sussex Realty, which is located across the street from the WAG, about using its space to promote the art gallery, and the company agreed.

“It hasn’t been in use for many years,” Maksymiuk said of the Casa Loma space. “How amazing it would be to use that billboard to promote the WAG?”

The art gallery would be responsible for providing and installing signage, Maksymiuk said. “They’re providing the space… It’s a big savings” as such advertising would cost close to $1,500 a month to rent if the non-profit organization had to pay.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca