Lebanon BZA approves sign variance for Davis Building Group sales office on Birchwood Drive

Lebanon — The Sydney Lebanon Board of Zoning Appeals on Monday approved a development-standards variance allowing Davis Building Group to install a larger commercial-style monument sign at 112 Birchwood Drive, where the company operates a model home and sales office.

Planning staff told the board the property is zoned residential but is currently used as a sales office and model home under a use variance. Ben (planning staff) said Davis applied to match the height and face area typical of adjacent commercial signs—45 square feet and up to the commercial district height—rather than the smaller sign allowed for a nonresidential use in a residential zone. Planning recommended approval, subject to removing the sign no later than three months after the home permanently reverts to residential use. "Planning staff recommends approval of the development standards variance request to permit relief from the height and size requirements," Ben said.

The variance will allow a sign significantly larger than what applies to nonresidential uses in residential districts. Staff described the proposed sign as approximately 45 square feet on the main face and roughly 9 to 11 feet tall (commercial standards permit up to 12 feet tall and 45 square feet). Staff said the proposed sign meets required setbacks, is constructed of quality materials and will not create public-safety issues. Ben also told the board that properties on both sides are zoned commercial and contain ground signs of similar scale.

Paul Carroll, representing Davis Building Group, told the board the developer intends to use the house as a long-term model home and sales office — "at minimum 10, but . . . the expectation is really more 20 years" — and agreed to the staff condition to remove the sign after the property reverts to residential use. Carroll said the company had worked with staff on sign placement, location and design and was "agreeable with the commitment that once this does revert to residential, the sign will be removed." The company also said the sales office is currently staffed and that the former garage serves as interior sales space.

Board members asked about lighting and whether the sign would be visible from Interstate 65; staff said the sign permit review will ensure compliance with UDO lighting standards. The board also discussed the reason the property had been rezoned to residential earlier in the process: staff said rezoning now gives the owner certainty that the property can be converted back to residential in the future without relying on a future rezoning decision.

Following discussion, a motion to approve Docket 25-6 carried unanimously. The board approved the variance with the condition that the applicant remove the sign no later than three months after the house on the property permanently reverts to residential use.

The board did not add separate permit conditions about sign lighting because staff said the permit review under the Unified Development Ordinance will cover lighting and other technical sign standards.