Downtown Design Commission recommends variance for large wall signs at 4 East Sheridan Avenue

The Downtown Design Commission on Aug. 21 recommended that the Board of Adjustment approve variances to allow attached wall signage at 4 East Sheridan Avenue that staff said exceed current sign-area limits.

Commission Chair Kayla Copeland opened the meeting and moved the agenda to the item involving signage at 4 East Sheridan Avenue. Planning staff presented the item and told commissioners the project had been considered at the commission——s July 17 meeting and that staff had since determined the earlier review did not account for an existing painted sign on the building——s west elevation.

"When we began researching the next item on the agenda today, we came to realize that, we had misinterpreted, the way that the sign on the existing sign on the west elevation had been calculated into the mix," staff said, noting the west-elevation sign was installed in 2015 and was treated differently under code changes enacted the following year.

Staff told the commission that because the earlier JE Dunn sign on the west elevation had been painted over an older ghost sign, staff originally believed it fell under a ghost-sign exemption; staff later concluded the exemption and an overall building cap must be applied under the current code and that the previously approved sign therefore needed a variance. Staff recommended the commission forward a recommendation of approval for the variance request to the Board of Adjustment.

Planning staff described the technical background for the recommendation: the existing wall sign on the west elevation predates a later change in the sign regulations; current code language adopted after that installation includes an overall cap on attached-wall-sign area for a building and a separate exemption that generally excludes historic "ghost signs" from the cap, but that exemption does not apply to signs that replaced a ghost sign prior to the code's effective date.

Staff also said the proposed new sign is the same size and in the same location as the existing sign and therefore would not expand the amount of signage on the building. "The upshot of this is that this sign is already in existence. The new sign that's being proposed is in the same location. It's in the same size, so there's essentially no expansion of the amount of signage on the building," staff said.

Commissioners moved and seconded motions to recommend approval to the Board of Adjustment for variances related to the maximum allowable area for attached wall signs. Both motions passed without a roll-call tally on the record. The staff report referenced the Bricktown Core Development District Zoning Ordinance and the current sign code.

The commission did not take final action to grant the variance; the commission's action was a recommendation to the Board of Adjustment, which must consider and decide whether to grant the variance. The staff presentation and the commission's motions did not include a recorded numerical vote tally in the meeting transcript.

The commission returned to other business and communications and adjourned after noting the next meeting date of Sept. 18, 2025.