East Vancouver billboards taken down after blocking renter’s view

Update: The developer has confirmed the billboards were taken down Tuesday morning.

Charity Justrabo likes to start her mornings with her dog Dexter on the front lawn in East Vancouver. While he’s rolling around, they typically get to enjoy a view of the corner of the house she’s been renting for over a year.

But recently, that view was blocked by billboards from a condo developer in what it says was a case of miscommunication.

“They’re massive. It’s a really big visual obstruction to our front lawn,” Charity Justrabo told CityNews on Monday.

She says she measured the signs, which were for a development called The Cut, to be as large as sixteen by eight feet in size.

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The developer owns the land Justrabo lives on and it’s within their rights to do whatever they want with it. While she and her housemates knew the development was coming, she’s not happy the company never told them the signs.

“There was no communication about any change of plan. It was just like, they were going ahead with the sign, and that’s what they decided to do … Generally, the feeling is we are an afterthought.”

Her sister Felicity shared a tweet about the situation online, and Vancouver city councillors offered some resources for her. She notes the company did send a gift basket.

They were going to talk with developers on Tuesday, but in the middle of the Monday interview with CityNews, Justrabo said her housemates got an email from the development company, saying the signs are coming down.

“We did receive what seems to be an apology for the signs going up without notice. And we have also been informed that the signs will be coming down … It’s great! It feels good to get direct communication from the CEO of the company about this.”

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In an email on Tuesday, Jordan MacDonald, CEO of FabricLiving says a property manager miscommunicated that solely landscaping work — not signage installation — would be taking place on the property.

MacDonald says this was not the intention, and they “contacted the tenants immediately following the discovery that the tenant had not been notified of the signage to try and rectify the situation.”

“I notified all tenants on the property on Monday, Feb 21 that the signage will be removed the following day,” MacDonald added. “I also clarified that the third party signage contractor who installed the signs was not provided any information by Fabric or our property management that the properties were vacant. The signage contractor spoke on their own accord and we were very surprised to hear that they had stated that as it is clearly not the case.”

The Cut signage was removed at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, following the notice.

The front of Charity Justrabo’s house after developers removed billboards on Feb. 22, 2022. (Charity Justrabo)

“We hold ourselves to a higher standard than what has transpired here and we regret the friction that we have caused. We are taking this seriously and have learned a very valuable lesson here,” MacDonald said in the statement.