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Saturday,
November 3, 2007
By David
Mcgee
BRISTOL, Va. – Some business owners along the Interstate 81 corridor
may qualify for additional signage, under a change considered Friday by the
city’s Planning Commission.
Under the plan, owners of shopping centers near
the interstate highway would be allowed to erect a ground-level sign listing
all tenants of the center. The proposal would have to be approved by the City
Council.
City regulations currently allow such centers to
have one sign on a 40-foot pole and ground-level signs only for individual
businesses.
The commission rejected a proposal to allow the
second sign to also be mounted as a 40-foot pole sign.
"Pole signs are lollipops and I’m against
adding more lollipops," Commissioner R. L. Light said. "It’s going to
get where you can’t see the sky for the signs."
The requested change came from Charles Cole, who
recently purchased the former Beaver
Creek Plaza
near Interstate 81’s Exit 5. Cole plans to relocate his Harley-Davidson
dealership from Abingdon to a portion of the center.
"He already has a right to a pole sign, which
would be the Harley-Davidson logo," said Jerry Brown, the city’s director
of economic development. "But there will be multiple tenants in that
center. He didn’t feel he could adequately advertise those multiple tenants
[under current regulations]."
Brown said Cole didn’t plan for the second sign to
be elevated and would have no problem with having it at ground level.
City Planner Jay Detrick said proposed change for
a second pole sign was suggested by the staff.
After a 15-minute discussion, the commission voted
unanimously to hold a joint public hearing with the City Council to consider
the proposal. Any changes to the sign ordinance must ultimately be approved by
the council.
The hearing could come as soon as the Nov. 27
council meeting, Detrick said.
http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-11-03-0019.html
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