Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sign Code topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning commission backs proposal to relax commercial wall-sign limits, recommends 1 sq ft per linear foot and a 200 sq ft cap
Summary
After discussion on units and building-scale impacts, the commission unanimously recommended to Council updating the commercial sign code to allow larger wall signs (staff proposed up to 200 sq ft) and clarified the unit as one square foot per linear foot of building frontage; commissioners asked staff to track visual impacts for small, long buildings.
The planning commission voted unanimously on Dec. 16 to recommend amendments to the commercial wall-sign portion of the city sign code. Staff proposed moving away from a single 75-square-foot standard adopted in 2010 toward a more flexible approach — allowing up to 200 square feet in some cases and regulating signage as 1 square foot per linear foot of building frontage — to reduce variance requests for large multi-tenant buildings.
Staff explained the current one-size approach fails to account for very large modern buildings (warehouses, distribution centers) and multiple-tenant frontages; it showed a recent approved variance with a sign over 200 square feet as an example of demand for a larger cap. Commissioners focused questions on how the unit should be written and how the change would play on smaller long buildings (for example, whether a 5,000-square-foot, long facade could produce an outsized sign). Staff said other code safeguards (lettering-height limits, architectural compatibility standards and case-by-case review) would remain and that the BZA had been comfortable with a 200-square-foot cap in workshop sessions.
One commissioner noted a copy-edit issue (the handout mistakenly said "square feet" and "linear square feet") and a staff member said the language would be clarified to read "1 square foot per linear foot of building frontage." After discussion the commission moved to recommend the proposed code changes to council; the motion passed with all votes in favor.
Next steps: staff will prepare the formal code amendment text (incorporating the unit clarification) for City Council consideration and monitor whether the change reduces future variance applications.
