City Council Agenda and Packet 2013 07 02

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City Council Meeting Minutes June 18, 2013 Page 11 of 12 Principal Planner McCartney explained staff was given direction in 2012 to move forward with a Branding, Directional, and Wayfinding Project. This was identified in the 2010 Parking and Pedestrian Action Plan as a capital improvement aimed at increasing the accessibility and visibility of underutilized parking spaces throughout Downtown. The City's 2012 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) included funding to install upgraded parking and wayfinding signs for Downtown. Staff prepared a Downtown sign plan intended to provide navigational assistance to travelers visiting Downtown Louisville, which would be easy to understand and could ultimately be used Citywide. The Downtown sign plan was the result of an intensive three month planning and design process, which included Planning Staff reviewing alternative sign packages with the Business Retention and Development (BRaD) Committee; the Louisville Revitalization Commission (LRC), the Downtown Business Association (DBA), and City Council. The City Council then directed staff to move forward with an RFP for fabrication of the signs. The project came in at half the budget. Signs were placed in some downtown areas to receive public comment. In July of 2012 staff was contacted by Xcel and advised they were beginning an outreach program directed at understanding how municipalities were using their utility poles. Two utility pole brands are used in Louisville: Mountain States and Sternberg. The Mountain States utility pole has a much higher weight rating than the Sternberg poles. A Mountain States pole can withstand 9 SF of sign loading, whereas a Sternberg pole can only withstand 3 SF of sign loading. Unfortunately the current downtown circular sign is slightly larger than 3 SF (3.14 SF to be exact) and most of the Downtown poles are Sternberg poles. The supplemental rectangular directional signs would add another .6 SF per sign. Based on this information, staff would need to reduce the overall size of the Downtown signs to continue to use the Sternberg poles located throughout Downtown. Staff can create a sign program which does not involve the Xcel utility poles. The signs could be placed on new City owned poles, which would be similar to street sign poles. However, if we use individual poles for the sign program then the project could end up cluttering the downtown area with too many poles. Staff requested direction on which option to follow: a) make smaller signs to mount to the Sternberg poles, or b) use new City owned poles for the Downtown Sign program. COUNCIL COMMENT Council member Sackett asked for staff's recommendation. Principal Planner McCartney stated branding signs could be placed on City owned poles and be of any size. There would not be a need for a lot of signs because the downtown area is small. The next question is whether the signs should be used to provide direction to public areas or as a directional for downtown and ultimately as a wayfinding plan, not limited to the downtown district. 24