Published: October 27, 2009 11:42 pm      

Council to consider new sign option

Zoning administrator proposes change in downtown sign restrictions

Want to go

What: Logansport City Council

When: 5 p.m. Monday

Where: City council chambers on the third floor of the City Building at 600 E. Broadway.



The Logansport Zoning Office is asking for a change in language that would give downtown business owners more options when replacing signs.

The measure will go before the Logansport City Council for preliminary approval next week.

Zoning Administrator Ryan Schafer initially proposed the new language to the Downtown Development Review Board in early October.

Channeled letter signs are storefront signs with individually illuminated letters and graphics.

Schafer said the planning department was proposing language changes in the section of the ordinance governing signs in the Logan’s Landing District. Internally illuminated signs are now prohibited in the area from the confluence of the Eel and Wabash rivers to Eighth Street.

“After consultation with Logan’s Landing and the downtown review board, the general consensus is that this type of signage is desired in the downtown,” Schafer said.

Schafer proposed the ordinance change to the Downtown Development Review Board and Logansport Plan Commission during a public hearing this month on a proposed sign for Stacy Cox Insurance at 300 E. Broadway. Cox received approval to erect the channeled letter sign, but will not be able to turn on the internal illumination unless the city council passes the revised ordinance.

The zoning administrator said the changes would still prohibit internally illuminated “box-style” signs, such as LED, or light-emitting diode, signs in the downtown district. In light of the recent debate over internally illuminated signs, Schafer said, allowing channeled letter signs would give downtown business owners more options.

The reason for the change, he said, is to “give business owners in the downtown an alternative when their grandfathered box-style sign eventually ends up obsolete and in need of replacement.”

Schafer was referring to a request by Security Federal Savings Bank to replace a sign at Fourth and Market streets. The request was initially denied by a hearing officer for the Downtown Development Review Board, but the decision was later overturned by the Logansport Board of Zoning Appeals.

Proposed language changes in the ordinance would also allow for a small logo that could also be illuminated.

The exception would “allow for internal illumination signage that is tasteful and complementary to design standards in the downtown,” Shafer said.

The city council’s planning and economic development committee voiced no concerns with the ordinance request at a special meeting last week.

• Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.