Commission backs monument sign with electronic panel at 2125 Pointe Boulevard

The Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission on Sept. 8 recommended city council approve an amendment to special sign regulations to permit a 10-foot-high monument sign with a 65-square-foot electronic message center at 2125 Pointe Boulevard.

City staff said the property, a roughly 5.2-acre site with a 52,000-square-foot office/light-industrial building, is in a planned office/research/industrial (POR I) zone and lies along the I-90 Tollway. The proposed sign would total 122.5 square feet (10 feet tall) with a 65-square-foot electronic message center; city code currently allows 120 square feet with a 40-square-foot electronic panel in the standard allowance. Staff described partial visual obstruction from vegetation growing on the Tollway fence and explained the applicant will set the sign slightly west to preserve stormwater flow and will add required landscaping at the base.

Applicant representative Karen Dodge said the sign would be set back about 13 feet from the tollway and would serve ATEC Ambulance and the other tenant(s) on the site: "We would like to install a 5 by 12 electronic message center ground sign. They would like to install it on the south end of the property facing I-ninety." Staff advised the sign must comply with city limits on brightness and message frequency.

Staff recommended approval subject to standard conditions in the packet. The commission asked about maintenance and the source of the obstruction on the Tollway fence; staff said the property owner is responsible for landscaping interior to the fence and that vegetation on the Tollway side partially obstructs visibility.

The commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval; the matter will move to city council for final action.