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Sign review board approves Malibu Jacks request to add 200 sq. ft. digital display to monument sign
Summary
The North Richland Hills Sign Review Board on Aug. 11 approved a variance to increase a monument sign’s total area from 400 to 600 square feet at 8651 Airport Freeway to accommodate a 10-by-20-foot LED screen for Malibu Jacks. The vote was 8-0.
The North Richland Hills Sign Review Board unanimously approved Aug. 11 a variance allowing Malibu Jacks to increase the total area of its existing monument sign at 8651 Airport Freeway from 400 square feet to 600 square feet to accommodate an electronic message board.
Chris Petruska, representing the applicant, described plans for a 10-foot-by-20-foot LED screen to be placed below the existing logo on the monument sign. Petruska said the digital board would be "a critical tool to attract the annual attendance of 700,000 visitors we are counting on for the Malibu Jacks indoor theme park," and described the proposed proportions as "tasteful and appropriate."
City staff (Clayton Husband) explained that the existing sign was built in 1992, is about 45 feet tall, and already meets the 400-square-foot maximum for pole signs in the freeway overlay. The electronic message portion itself is permitted in the overlay, staff said, but the applicant asked for an additional 200 square feet of total sign area — raising the total to 600 square feet — which triggers the variance request.
Board members discussed whether the sign could be relocated on the parcel to avoid apparent overlap with a nearby sign on an adjacent lot; staff said limited freeway frontage and adjacent-lot boundaries constrain relocation options and that the odd layout dates to the early 1990s construction of the signs.
No members of the public signed up to comment. The board approved the variance 8-0, allowing the additional square footage; the applicant must complete permitting and comply with any conditions the board or permitting staff set.
The record shows staff and the board framed the request as an area/size variance rather than a request about electronic-message technology itself, which staff said is allowed in the overlay.
