Board approves wayfinding-sign variance for Walmart at 180 Fourth and Pines Boulevard

The Planning and Zoning Board approved a variance allowing pole-mounted wayfinding signs in the parking lot of a Walmart at 180 Fourth Street and Pines Boulevard.

Wesley Hevia, land use counsel for Walmart, told the board the company returned to request permission to install four wayfinding signs directing customers to online pickup parking; the issue was not sign size (the proposed signs meet city sizing rules) but whether signs of that type are permitted given the building’s visibility from the street. He said the signs are a best practice to help customers locate approved online pickup spaces.

Planning staff explained the directional-sign rules were written to guide people to multiple businesses in a center and noted that Walmart’s building is visible from the road; staff raised no objection to allowing the site-specific signs for a single use in this case. Board members asked whether the signs would be pole-mounted and whether they required size variances; staff and counsel said they met size limits and that the variance was only to permit the signs at all within the site context.

A motion to approve variance ZV2025-4 for the 180 Fourth Street and Pines Boulevard Walmart was made, seconded and approved by voice vote (transcript records verbal "Aye" and "Motion passed"). No roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript.