Maplewood design board approves Festival Foods sign plan at former Nolan’s site

The Maplewood Community Design Review Board on Nov. 18 approved a comprehensive sign plan for Festival Foods at 2720 Stillwater Road East, including a shared panel with Scooter's Coffee at 2730 Stillwater Road East, voting unanimously among members present to grant approval subject to nine conditions.

A staff member told the board the proposal updates a 1991 sign plan for a multi-tenant strip center (formerly Nolan's Foods) and includes four tenant cabinet signs, two channel-letter wall signs for Festival Foods and three graphic cabinets located under awnings. Staff said the proposed signs fall within the property's allowed square footage and that notice to properties within 350 feet produced no public comments. Staff also told the board that several window signs had been installed without the property owner's consent and recommended their removal as a condition of approval.

Steve Spry of Landmark Architectural Signs, the applicant, presented the drawings and clarified the awning-mounted graphics would be illuminated by downlighting and would be static. "They're static, not not a LED changeable," Spry said. He also confirmed Festival Foods supplied the graphic artwork. City staff and the applicant agreed that the lighting will be fixtures under the awning, not internally illuminated, changeable digital displays.

One committee member raised a technical concern about the vertical placement of the main Festival Foods graphic relative to the roof coping, recommending the board ask the applicant to lower the sign to leave at least 6 inches of clearance. The applicant and Jason Herpel of Nolan's Supermarkets confirmed they can accommodate the change and that it will be reflected on permit drawings. Herpel emphasized Nolan's will remain on site during the rebrand, saying, "Nolan's won't be leaving the site."

A committee member moved to approve the comprehensive sign plan for Festival Foods at 2720 Stillwater Road East, including the shared sign with Scooter's Coffee at 2730 Stillwater Road East, "subject to conditions of approval 1 through 9." The chair seconded the motion and the board voted unanimously in favor among members present.

The approved conditions include removal of the recently installed unauthorized window signs (as requested by the property owner), and staff noted that any future changes to sign placement, illumination type, or graphics would require either code compliance or a formal amendment to the sign plan. The applicant said it will add the sign-placement note to the permit drawings. The board took no public comments on the item and adjourned following routine closing business.