City Council seeks more benefits from Granville Street digital screen proposal

Vancouver City Council seeks more public benefits from digital screen proposal for the Granville Entertainment District

Artistic rendering of the new digital sign atop the former Champs Sports store building at 897 Granville Street, Vancouver. (Outfront Media)

Vancouver City Council has effectively deferred the decision on whether a new large digital advertising screen should be permitted in the core of the Granville Entertainment District.

Advertising firm Outfront is proposing to install a large digital screen on the rooftop of the building at the prominent northwest corner of the intersection of Granville Street and Smithe Street.

This would be a curved screen measuring 29 ft in length and eight ft in width above the 1904-built, one-storey retail building at 897 Granville Street, which has been sitting vacant ever since Champs Sports departed from its longtime location about two years ago.

The energy efficient LED sign would have an adjustable brightness to only display static images, with no motion or animation. The static images would transition about every eight seconds.

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In exchange for approval, Outfront would set aside 10% of the sign’s air time to the municipal government as a public benefit, such as for the display of initiatives by the City of Vancouver and Downtown Van (the local business improvement association). This is the same public benefit allocation as the larger twin digital signs at the Best Buy/Winners building a block to the north at the northeast corner of the intersection of Robson and Granville streets.

Existing condition:

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The former Champs Store building at 897 Granville Street, Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Proposed condition:

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Artistic rendering of the new digital sign atop the former Champs Sports store building at 897 Granville Street, Vancouver. (Outfront Media)

But City planners made a recommendation to City Council to reject the proposal.

According to City staff, the proposed sign location is too close to the SRO residential building to the south at 716 Smithe Street (above Cinema Public House). To mitigate the impact to the adjacent residential units, Outfront is proposing to turn off the sign from 11 pm to 7 am daily.

City policies require such digital signs to be at least 30 metres from a residential unit facing the sign, but the proposed location is 21 metres away.

Existing policies also do not permit rooftop signs “in order to limit proliferation of visual clutter in the urban environment,” and such signs must also be at least 15 metres away from a traffic signal, but the proposed location is five metres from the traffic lights for the intersection.

ABC councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung said while the proposal aligns with the forthcoming intent to visually animate the street as a way to help revitalize the entertainment district, she would prefer to wait until after City staff return with their new “robust” signage guidelines for the area in the third quarter of 2024.

Green party councillors Pete Fry and Adriane Carr expressed particular concern that the digital sign would be a visual distraction for vehicle drivers on Smithe Street, which is a one-way, westbound-only direction arterial roadway.

“I’m really against this particular sign, not only because it pre-empts the process but also because I’m probably, maybe, the only councillor who uses Smithe every day to get home, and it is one of the most treacherous streets to actually drive down,” said Carr.

“This is not a street to put a distractive, electric video sign on. I really plead to you fellow councillors to think about public safety.”

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Artistic rendering of the new digital sign atop the former Champs Sports store building at 897 Granville Street, Vancouver. (Outfront Media)

The previous large print billboard above the building at 897 Granville Street (top left), and artistic renderings of the proposed digital sign (bottom). (Outfront Media)

City Council ended the deliberations by voting in favour of ABC councillor Mike Klassen’s amendment to override City staff’s rejection. Instead, in accordance to the amendment, City staff will ask the applicant to consider to increase their proposed allocated air time to the City from 10% to up to 25%. City staff would then bring back the application to City Council by January 2024 for reconsideration.

The amendment was approved 6-4, with Fry, Carr, Kirby-Yung, and OneCity councillor Christine Boyle in opposition. ABC councillor Peter Mesizner was absent.

“If you look at other jurisdictions, we’re not going down the road of Times Square necessarily, but we know that these kinds of areas do attract signage, and they attract signage for video presentations,” said Klassen, who suggested the sign could perhaps be programmed to enable special event screenings, such as for the FIFA World Cup.

He says that based on the proponent’s existing allocation of 10% air time to the City, this would be equivalent to 1.7 hours of actual screen time per day for public messaging.

In an open letter to City Council, Downtown Van expressed support for the sign for the purpose of serving as a “unique gateway for Granville Street.”

“This sign will provide a better sense of arrival that is currently lacking at this intersection of Granville Street. The unique and prominent design may also hepl attract a new tenant to the retail space,” wrote Jane Talbot, the president and CEO of Downtown Van.

It was also noted by Downtown Van that Outfront intends to make special considerations to provide air time to charitable organizations during unsold periods, in addition to their air time commitment to the City.

The City is also currently in the midst of an 18-month-long planning process for the GED.

robson granville electronic video screen board may 2020

The 2020-installed larger replacement video screens at the intersection of Robson and Granville streets in downtown Vancouver. In this photo, the signs are displaying pandemic-time health safety advice during the City of Vancouver’s dedicated air time. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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The 2020-installed larger replacement video screens at the intersection of Robson and Granville streets in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

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