Judge strikes down Plateau’s billboard bylaw

A Superior Court judge dealt a blow to the Plateau-Mont-Royal’s anti-advertisement bylaw Thursday, striking it down and forcing the borough to fork over $325,000 to media agencies affected by the measure.

The bylaw, adopted in 2010 by Projet Montréal, prohibited the presence of large billboards in the borough — considered, by party supporters, to be an eyesore and source of light pollution. In his ruling dated Thursday, Judge Marc-André Blanchard wrote the bylaw violates the advertiser’s right to free expression as outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The ruling comes five years after Astral Media, Jim Pattison Industries, CBS Canada Holdings and other advertisers launched a lawsuit against the borough. They claim the borough interfered with their right to earn a profit.

Furthermore, Blanchard argued, it would have been impossible to destroy the 45 billboards targeted by the bylaw without expropriating people from private property and creating a whole new set of legal problems.

Removing billboards was only one of the many drastic changes in urban planning put forth by the administration of borough mayor Luc Ferrandez since his election in 2009.

Projet Montréal have about four weeks to decide whether they will appeal the ruling.