REGULAR MEETING OF THE EATON PLANNING
ZONING AND BUILDING BOARD ON MARCH 8, 2005
AT 7:00 P.M., IN COUNCIL CHAMBERS
The Eaton Planning, Zoning and Building Board met in regular session in Council Chambers on Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at 7:00 p.m.
The roll was called and the following was found to be:
Present: Ron Coleman
Harold Geeting
Gary Wagner
Tom Jordan
Absent: Steve Deffner
Also in attendance were Acting City Engineer Joe Ferriell, and Law Director Donnette Fisher. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
MINUTES:
The minutes of the January 11, 2005 meeting were read. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Ron Coleman and seconded by Gary Wagner. The motion passed as follows:
Ayes:
Coleman, Lane, Geeting,
Nays: None
Abstain: Spencer
SWEARING IN:
All members of the audience anticipating to testify before the Board were asked to stand and be sworn in. The Secretary administered the oath or affirmation to the audience.
AB-05-02 – Variance- Image National Signs – Cato –
I will note at this time that the Law Director does have a letter on record reading:
RG Properties grants CATO’S, or their agent, permission to represent the owner of Preble Crossing during the variance hearing concerning signage at the above referenced site. Signed Tom Gunlock.
Who is representing this tonight?
Keyes: I am Ed Keyes from Cap Signs in
Keyes: If that was what they submitted. The way you mentioned it earlier, it sounds like I have the one showing a little more square footage in text. I have not seen that abbreviated view and I am not sure we were copied on that.
Thank you. This is what they are requesting?
Fisher: Yes, I know that Bob Wehrley had talked to them. They had the word “misses” spelled all the way out and it was too big. Bob talked to them and they agreed they would go to just the “jr/ms,” which was a lot less sign space but it was still 5.35 sq. ft. over what they were allowed.
Keyes: The one thing I would say is that is such a small area, 2 ½ x 2 1/2, is five sq. ft. and is very small and I would like to bring that to your attention. We are just talking about a little chunk. You have legal documentation for your zoning, I understand that, but we are asking for a very small addition. I think what I had in my packet was it spelled out and what they are asking, they have conceded to much smaller text. So, we would ask you to grant that if you would.
Fisher: Bob allowed them to put the CATO sign up because it is within their allowable sq. footage and the only issue was the “jr/misses.”
Keyes: I think the other thing that they say in the
letter, it is very important, if you look at CATO, you look at CAP, my name CAP
doesn’t mean anything until you add signs to it. We did a job in
Spencer: Are you familiar with, you are getting into the area of Corporate Identity, you just started addressing some of that. Are you aware of how else they represent this in their other places?
Keyes: I am really not, this is the first one we have done. They state that they have the “jr/misses” and “plus” and they have a sign package of 84 sq. ft. across the country and yours is like 65 or 67 sq. feet. That is their package that goes to all of the centers across the country. I am sure they run into this as we run into it in with other situations where it is a little over in certain areas.
Spencer: Usually they have standardized things that they have to adapt to local regulations and I was just wondering how they had handled this in other places.
Keyes: I can’t speak for that, I am not real
sure. This is our first representation of this group out of
Spencer: There is no question that they need identification of some type.
Fisher: This is actually going to be smaller with the “jr/ms” and the “plus.” It still won’t take as much room as the Rent-A-Center sign does but the Rent-A-Center has more square feet in their building and the current zoning code limits it based on the amount of building frontage you have. It is actually not going to be as big as the Rent-A-Center sign, if that helps put it into context.
Wagner: You mentioned the current zoning code, what does this help us as being applicable to the new zoning code?
Fisher: We will see what you do with that table tonight. When we went through it with the review committee, they upped the allowable signage because the code that we currently have, those standards were written in 1988. The variances that you see every month are for signs, our current code does not allow enough square area for what is needed.
Wagner: I drove up there and looked at all of the signage and the Rent-A-Center sign is very large and I thought how could that large sign be there, but you are right that they do have more frontage.
Fisher: They took up two of the spaces.
Wagner: Based on the revision he has put here, I don’t see any issue personally.
Fisher: It is actually less overall sign because they are supposed to be, there are five businesses there now, and there were originally suppose to be seven. There is actually less signage than we expected originally.
Coleman: This is non-illuminated, yes?
Keyes: Yes, it is non-illuminated.
Geeting: My personal opinion when I was looking at it, I realized that the Rent-A-Center was a pretty good size but when you take into consideration that you only have forty-five feet across the front of it and you add these other letters in there, that is going to fill that up pretty full, actually would crowd the signage along there.
Keyes: I think in crowding it a little bit was the original layout they had, and the other thing, you could take these letters down in size in inches, jr/ms and plus and elevate five square feet and get within your code, but they still are allowed to have that type of signage there. If you would divide among seven or eight letters, you are only talking about a letter height of about that much difference. If this was fifteen or twenty square feet I could see it, but I would just ask you to take a hard look at that, it is only a 2-½ area by 2-½ sq. ft. which is about 5 sq. feet. It is just a little block.
Wagner: Unless I have added this up wrong, you still have (6) or (7) feet on both sides of that signage.
Wagner: I don’t think that is crowded in there with that much space.
Keyes: That is a nice stroke on Cato’s and that is a nice size letter but these are really much smaller and they are non illuminated, if that is a concern, there is no light on them.
Fisher: Our current code says 1 ½ ft. per each linear foot of building width you have.
It was Bob Wehrley’s recommendation that we consider upping that to two because you see variances based on this a lot.
Ferriell: Planning Board makes a recommendation to the Appeals Board on variances following Chapter 1133.07, of the Comprehensive Development Plan. The Zoning District is ‘C-1.’ The applicant is requesting an increase in the proposed signage square footage. Request variance of 5.35 sq. ft. The maximum signage allowed is 67.5 sq. ft. and the total signage requested is 72.85 sq. ft. This variance must meet the general requirements of Chapter 1169.06 (a) & (b) (1) (A&B) page 138. On the Comp Plan it is in the “North Gateway Planning Area” with a future land use of Suburban Regional Commercial and Office. There are no special recommendations that pertain to this application.
Wagner: Based on what our Law Director has told us, and what we as Planning Board will be doing in the future with our new code, I would opt to see this a favorable opinion to the Appeals Board from the Planning Board on this issue.
Fisher: If you do make it 2 square feet this would only be a temporary variance because once the new code goes into effect, it will be conforming.
Wagner: I move for approval of case AB-05-02, Image National Signs application for CATO’S, in that it complies with the applicable standards of Chapter 1133.07, Variances, page 43. Ron Coleman seconded the motion and it passed as follows:
Ayes: Coleman, Spencer, Lane, Geeting,
Nays: None
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS:
If not then I will accept a motion to adjourn.
Gary Wagner moved to adjourn and Ron Coleman seconded it. All Ayes and motion passed.
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Secretary Chairman