Planning Commission Minutes 2019 04 11

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April 11, 2019 Page 3 of 10 Ritchie replied that the community was okay with signs that were a little bigger. 10% on height would be a lot since the height allowance was already high, but an increase beyond 10% for area could be acceptable. She suggested that they could increase the percentage or they could scale back on the by -right option and leave the 20% on area or scale back on the by -right signage size with the increase to 20% as the incentive. Brauneis noted that scaling back the by -right seemed like penalizing people who wanted to be involved in the Master Sign Program. Zuccaro stated that staff would bring additional information on this issue to the Commission. Areas in Louisville Ritchie presented the different areas in the sign plan: residential, commercial, industrial, mixed -used, and downtown. She noted that the downtown area was experiencing the least changes to signage criteria, since the City did not receive many waiver requests for the downtown area. Sandwich board signs Ritchie asked for feedback on where businesses could put their sandwich boards vis-a- vis the location of their business and allowing sandwich boards outside of downtown. Rice asked if there were any caps on the total number of sandwich boards and voiced a concern for having too many of them on sidewalks. Zuccaro replied that the allowances to have a sandwich board away from your storefront would only apply to alley -access businesses and a couple of private pedestrian alleyways downtown. The proposed language did not allow second -story businesses to have sandwich boards. He added that there was no cap on the total number of sandwich boards. Brauneis thought it was excessive for businesses on Front Street to advertise on Main Street. Moline asked for the rationale that business owners used to request allowing businesses on other streets to put their signs on Main Street. Ritchie responded that these businesses largely made the argument that their signs were more effective if they were on Main Street. Hoefner stated that he was sympathetic to the alley -fronted businesses. While those businesses knew they were going to have to operate in an alley, he liked the character of the alleyways and wanted to help encourage businesses there. He agreed that there should be limitations on where sandwich boards could be. Rice noted that these could be considered de facto permanent signs even if they had to be taken in every night.