LEXINGTON, Va. — The Lexington Planning Commission opened a public hearing on a zoning-text amendment request on Aug. 28 seeking to allow internally illuminated canopy signs in C-1 and C-2 commercial districts, then postponed action to the next meeting after technical and design issues remained unresolved. Arnie, city planning staff, told the commission the amendment would change the signs chapter of the zoning ordinance to allow a sign type not currently permitted in the C-1 downtown district and to define detail such as maximum height, allowed lighting, and lumens or color temperature. "The average brightness according to Scott Dammer in our public works department... is 1,300 lumens," Arnie said while noting staff still needed detailed specifications from the applicant's sign manufacturer. Francesco Benincasa, the applicant for the GIN hotel building, said the proposal was intended to reflect the building's 1920s era and to reinstate the visibility and character of a historic hotel sign. "The idea was to try to reflect the, the era of the building," Benincasa said. He described the design intent as an outline-style, open-face channel-letter sign lit by LED (modern equivalent of neon) and positioned over the main entrance. Staff provided measured examples: State Theater and other downtown canopies were measured at about 12 to 12.6 feet to the top of the canopy, and an existing canopy at a Sheets gas station was recorded as having signs of about 21.65 square feet. Commissioners and staff focused on enforceable technical limits (brightness, kelvin/color temperature, and maximum letter size or proportional limits tied to frontage) and on where approval authority should sit. Several commissioners favored giving the Architectural Review Board a central role in design review for additions in the downtown historic district rather than attempting highly prescriptive citywide numeric limits in the zoning text. Resident Caroline Alexander, speaking in public comment, recommended a color-temperature range for consistent appearance and offered to assist with technical guidance; she said a warm white range would be 2,700 to 3,000 kelvin. Arnie told the commission staff would return with additional technical information, including sign manufacturer specifications, measured frontages for example buildings, and relevant design-guideline language from the Architectural Review Board. The commission then voted to postpone the item to the next meeting to allow time for those materials. A motion to postpone carried unanimously.