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Lebanon City board approves larger signs for Eli Lilly campus to improve wayfinding
Summary
The Lebanon City Board of Zoning Appeals on June 1 approved variances allowing slightly larger monument signs and much larger on-site directional signs for the 600-acre Eli Lilly LP1/LP2 campus, citing staff findings that bigger signs improve safety and site logistics.
Lebanon City — The Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously June 1 to grant Eli Lilly a development-standards variance to increase the allowable size of monument and on-site directional signs at the company’s LP1/LP2 campus on the city’s north side.
Planning staff told the board the 600-acre site is unusually large and complex and that larger signage will improve driver wayfinding and safety. “We think that increasing the size of the signs will actually be better for safety around the site,” the planner said, adding that the signs are sited to avoid public-ROW visibility problems while helping get employees, visitors and trucks to the correct building.
The request sought relief from two specific UDO limits: monument signs that would otherwise be capped at 45 square feet (staff said the proposed monument signs are just over 50 square feet) and on-site directional signs that would otherwise be limited to six square feet (the applicant sought roughly 13.5 square feet). Staff applied the ordinance’s three findings of fact and recommended approval, saying the requested sizes respond to the site’s scale and the adjacent roads’ speed limits.
No members of the public came forward during the hearing and the applicant declined to add to staff’s presentation. On a motion and second, the board voted yes: Brian Kersbomb, Bruce Polly, Ron Edwards and Lorie Gross. One member, Corey Coun, was recorded absent.
Why it matters: the sign changes are intended to reduce driver confusion on a large, multi-building corporate campus and to improve circulation for employees, visitors and commercial vehicles. Planning staff noted that if the site were in the adjacent LEAP district there would be fewer directional-sign restrictions; the campus sits in the city’s general industrial zoning and required a variance under the UDO.
The board’s action approves the variances; no additional conditions were recorded in the hearing. The board adjourned after completing the second docket item.
