Put it in your window, or put it in the trash.
That’s the message that the City’s Planning and Engineering department has delivered to Tara Seeger, the Grandin woman whose front lawn sign ‘Save Canada Post’ reached media attention last week. She was originally ordered to remove the ‘illegal’ sign after a neighbour’s complaint sparked a visit from bylaw enforcement.
Now, the sign is being referred to as an unauthorized sign, meaning that she would have had to apply for a permit for it. To keep the sign visible to the world, she would have to place it in a window facing out. She has until Aug. 1 to decide on her course of action.
Jean Ehlers, the manager of development with Planning and Engineering, said that moving it to the window would put it in compliance with the bylaw. He added that authorizing a permit for a sign such as this to be placed outside would never occur because it does not fit the requirements.
“Signs like that are not allowed in the front yard,” he said.
Seeger’s support for the Crown Corporation went without controversy for a few months until a neighbour’s complaint set bylaw enforcement in motion. Notably, the complaint was only for Seeger’s sign and not also for a ‘Support CBC’ sign on the lawn of a neighbour’s house just a few doors down.
Ehlers originally stated that these matters are complaint-driven and that bylaw enforcement doesn’t go from door to door looking for infractions. He confirmed that the neighbour has now received her own similar notice to remove her sign or move it indoors, despite no complaint having been received against it. The bylaw officer only issued it due to the proximity of the two signs. He referred back to the Land Use Bylaw where it stipulates which signs are allowed and in which districts of the city.
Among the four main purposes of the sign regulations section of the bylaw are the stipulations that signs neither “unduly interfere with the amenities of the district,” “materially interfere with or affect the use, enjoyment or value of neighbouring properties,” nor “create visual or aesthetic blight.”
Ehlers had no comment on how moving the sign from the yard to the window would change the impact on the neighbour who made the original complaint.
Seeger can appeal the decision but had not done so by press time. She noted that the letter referring to the unauthorized sign doesn’t make mention of the new signs she installed to protest what she calls “organized censorship.”
“That’s going to be another letter,” she remarked with a laugh. “It’s the fondest little sign of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”
