ARB continues Cannery master sign program after questions about wayfinding and tenant names on entry markers

The Palo Alto Architectural Review Board on May 15 continued, by a 5-0 vote, the master-sign-program application for 340 Portage Avenue (the Cannery of Palo Alto). The board asked the applicant to return with a refined wayfinding scheme that separates campus-level identification ("Cannery") from tenant-facing signage and to reconsider entries proposed adjacent to future townhome parcels.

Staff presented a master sign program covering nine total signs and seven sign types intended to give the redeveloped site unified, high-quality business identification. Board discussion focused on the three entry/directional markers located at the ends of the site and whether those markers should carry individual tenant names when the marker locations sit next to (or on) a planned separate townhome parcel.

Why the board continued the sign program

Key board concerns were: (1) directional/entry signs proposed on the property edge near the future townhome parcel (labeled in materials as EI 0.1 / EI 0.2) would carry tenant names adjacent to residences and could be awkward or inconsistent with future parcelization; (2) staff identified that two directory signs proposed along Park Boulevard currently exceed the sign-code area allowance (one measures roughly 9.4 square feet vs. the…