The filed record
Signage to Identify Privately Owned Publicly-Accessible Spaces
The Public Gallery wrote no story on this item. What follows is the city’s own record of what happened to it, as filed: nothing on this page is summarised or scored by us.
The decision
2025-03-18 · Planning and Housing Committee · adopted
As filed
The Planning and Housing Committee: 1. Requested the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, and the City Solicitor to report to the Planning and Housing Committee in the fourth quarter of 2025 on the feasibility of posting signage on City property to denote adjacent Privately Owned Publicly-Accessible Spaces (POPS) secured prior to the 2014 POPS design guidelines.
On the agenda
As the city filed it
I am writing to request your support to have Staff investigate the feasibility of creating signage on City property that highlights Privately Owned Publicly-Accessible Spaces (POPS) that were secured prior to the 2014 POPS design guidelines coming into force. These sites were unfortunately not considered in the initial guidelines requested by myself and former Councillor Adam Vaughan in 2012. Unlike the sites secured after 2014, the City does not have the ability to require property owners to post signage advertising that POPS sites are available for public use.
Show the rest of As the city filed it, 878 more characters as filed
The inability to post signage has created the conditions for exclusionary private uses of some POPS site in Toronto. In recent years, a coffee shop in Midtown posted a "customers only" sign on patio furniture on a POPS site and a downtown ice cream store fenced off a site that was supposed to be publicly accessible for a private patio. Signage could also increase residents' awareness of legacy sites that, because of design and location, are not obviously for public use. For example, a sign could let Midtown residents know that a condo courtyard recessed from the street is a POPS that was secured in the early 2000s. This motion asks Planning and Transportation Services Staff to assess the feasibility of placing signage on City-owned sidewalks, street furniture, or utility infrastructure adjacent to POPS sites to let residents know they are welcome to enjoy the space.
Staff recommended
Councillor Josh Matlow recommends to the Planning and Housing Committee: 1. Request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, and the City Solicitor, report to Planning and Housing Committee in the fourth quarter of 2025 on the feasibility of posting signage on City property to denote adjacent Privately Owned Publicly-Accessible Spaces (POPS) secured prior to the 2014 POPS design guidelines.
On the record
More from this meeting
- 2 College Street - Area-Specific Amendment to the Sign By-lawFiled record
- 3 Bestobell Road - Area-Specific Amendment to the Sign By-lawFiled record
- 496 Evans Avenue - Area-Specific Amendment to the Sign By-lawFiled record
- Facilitating Building Approvals for Modular Construction and Streamlining Toronto Building's Certified Plans Program - UpdateFiled record
- 667 King Street West - Notice of Intention to Designate a Property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage ActFiled record
- 877 and 885 Lawrence Avenue East - Notice of Intention to Designate a Property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage ActFiled record