The giant digital billboards that tower over Yonge-Dundas Square and flash corporate messages at cars zipping along the Gardiner Expressway could spread throughout Toronto.

A city-commissioned consultant’s report is recommending bylaw amendments that would allow digital billboards in Toronto’s commercial and employment areas — “basically areas where nobody lives (and) … hopefully largely invisible to neighbourhoods,” Ted Van Vliet, manager of the city’s sign bylaw unit, said Monday.

The report recommends that electronic billboards not be permitted within 250 metres of any residence or open space, such as a park or golf course. Critics say that matters little when digital billboards can be seen from two kilometres away.

Public consultations began Monday evening and will continue the rest of the week.

Councillor Janet Davis said she’s frustrated that just three years ago, the city responded to public input by restricting electronic billboards to two special sign districts: Yonge-Dundas Square and along the Gardiner Expressway.

“Billboards are an intrusion in our public space; they are unsafe for anyone driving or riding a vehicle,” she said. “How does it contribute to building a better city by having more billboards? In my view, nothing.”

Longtime public space activist Alison Gorbould predicts the floodgates will open if council adopts the recommendations. “If you let a sign owner in one part of the city have a digital sign, then in order to compete, the other sign owners have to get a digital sign, too.”

The fact these massive advertising platforms are back on the agenda is a triumph of the super-active billboard lobby at city hall, Gorbould said.

Van Vliet said the review is underway to make sure the sign bylaw is up-to-date.

“We could be standing in the way, based on the number of applications that we have been getting for these.” The city currently has about 40 giant digital billboards.

The consultant’s report is also recommending that the city allow digital advertising in all bus shelters.