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Board of Zoning Appeals rejects Boone Funeral Home electronic sign, 4–3
Summary
The Board of Zoning Appeals on July 17 denied a special-use request that would have allowed a new electronic message sign at Boone Funeral Home on Washington Avenue after a 4–3 vote and roughly 18 minutes of discussion about size, proximity to residences and nighttime impacts.
The Board of Zoning Appeals denied a request from Boone Funeral Home Properties LLC to install a new electronic message sign at 5316 Washington Avenue, voting 4–3 on July 17 during the board’s regular meeting at the Civic Center Complex.
The petitioner, represented at the hearing by Jordan Duncan, asked the board to approve Special Use SPU-2025-012 to add an electronic message panel below an existing, unlit sandblasted main sign and to raise the sign’s height. “We’re just asking for the sign to be able to stay where it’s been for 40 years,” Duncan said, and described the proposed panel as a simple marquee to display a funeral honoree’s name, date and limited messages.
Board members and nearby residents pressed for details on size, height and nighttime operation. Staff and a board member summarized measurements in the packet: the existing head of the sign is 17 square feet and about 4 feet tall; the proposed main head was described as 35 square feet and about 9.5 feet tall, with a new electronic panel beneath it. Board members noted two existing electronic signs across the street — one at a nearby church (about 16 square feet, 5 feet off the ground) and one at the library (about 21 square feet, 7.9 feet tall) — and said the library sign previously required multiple variances.
Opponents — including a nearby resident who said seeing a deceased loved one’s photo on an electronic board would be distressing — told the board the site is surrounded by R-1 residential zoning, and said the proposed sign would be substantially larger than other electronic signs on Washington Avenue. A board member pressed whether the electronic panel met the special-use criterion that a use be “essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare,” saying an electronic message board’s content cannot by itself make the device essential.
During deliberations the board discussed operational conditions. The petitioner proposed programming that dims the sign at dusk to 10 percent and shuts it off at 8 p.m.; the petitioner said manufacturers routinely program dimming when signs are near residences. A motion to approve the special use with a condition that the sign dim to 10 percent at dusk and be turned off at 8 p.m. failed on a roll call vote: Miss Cabell, Miss Kasha, Miss Payne and Mr. Rudolph voted no; Mr. Shetler, Mr. Zayner and Mr. Petke voted yes. The chair announced the motion defeated, 4 no, 3 yes.
Because the request was denied, no special-use conditions will be recorded for this property. The petitioner may return to the board in a future month if they refile and meet any filing requirements.
Votes at the hearing were cast by the board’s seven members. The board’s rules and the zoning code were discussed but no change to the written ordinance was made at this meeting.
