Z-8733 Staff AnalysisDECEMBER 19, 2011
ITEM NO.: 3
File No.: Z-8733
Owner: Cantrell 1, LLC
Applicant: Chuck Fiser
Address: 7704 Cantrell Road
Description: North side of Cantrell Road, at "T" Street
Zoned: C-3
Variance Requested: A variance is requested from the sign provisions of Section 36-557
to allow a wall sign without direct street frontage.
Justification: The applicant's justification is presented in an attached letter.
Present Use of Property: Commercial
Proposed Use of Property: Commercial
STAFF REPORT
A. Public Works Issues:
No Comment
B. Staff Analysis:
The C-3 zoned property at 7704 Cantrell Road is occupied by a one-story
commercial building. The property is located on the north side of Cantrell Road at
"T" Street. Access drives from Cantrell Road are located at the east and west
ends of the property. A small parking area is located at the east end of the
building.
The applicant is proposing to locate a wall sign on the west end of the existing
building for a new business, "Blue Truck Moving". The proposed sign will be 47.5
square feet in area and painted on the concrete block wall. The sign will replace a
larger "Nationwide Insurance" sign which was recently painted over.
Section 36-557(a) of the City's Zoning Ordinance requires that wall signs be located
on sides of buildings which face streets. Therefore, the applicant is requesting a
variance to allow a wall sign on the west end of the building, running perpendicular to
the Cantrell Road right-of-way.
DECEMBER 19, 2011
ITEM NO.: 3 (CON'T.
Staff is supportive of the requested variance to allow a sign without direct street
frontage. Staff views the request as reasonable. Recent improvements and right-
of-way acquisitions to Cantrell Road have created very little space between the
existing building and the edge of pavement. Staff feels that this has a negative
impact on the visibility of signs located on the south wall of the building. The sign
on the west wall of the building will aid in identifying the building to east bound
traffic on Cantrell Road. The sign will replace a wall sign that existed on this
building for a number of years. Additionally, the proposed sign will only occupy ten
(10) percent of the west wall of the building. Staff believes the proposed wall sign
without street frontage will have no adverse impact on the adjacent properties or
the general area.
C. Staff Recommendation:
Staff recommends approval of the requested sign variance, subject to a sign permit
being obtained.
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT: (December 19, 2011)
The applicant was present. There were no objectors present. Staff presented the
application with a recommendation of approval, with conditions.
The item was placed on the Consent Agenda and approved, as recommended by staff,
with a vote of 4 ayes, 0 nays and 1 absent.
Sign Variance Summary -2- 9.733
The following document represents the proposal for a Sign Variance for the
property located at 7704 Cantrell Road.
We currently own the building in which we have recently moved our new
business into. Our new business is Blue Truck Moving. The building is located on
Cantrell Road and is directly to the East of The HOP (Restaurant) and directly to
the West of Crazees Cafe. It is a single structure which is composed of a two
story concrete block/brick section on the east side and a one story concrete
block/brick section on the west side. We currently have 1 tenant which is CK
Nails and they occupy the east portion. Nationwide has been a tenant for over 10
years in the middle section of the building, but they have recently moved their
location so that area is currently vacant. Blue Truck moving has recently
occupied the far west portion of the building.
The only signage that is currently on the building is a Nationwide Sign that is
painted in the west facade of the building and two awning signs — one for
Nationwide and one for CK Nails. Obviously, Nationwide is no longer a tenant so
their signs are no longer relevant.
Being that our business is relatively new in Little Rock, we wanted to use signage
to advertise our new location. We explored constructing a ground/pole sign but
we were informed by Ace Sign that this would not be allowed because of the
front set -backs and side setbacks. These setbacks were altered several years
ago when Cantrell was widened was by the Arkansas Highway Department. We
are really needing to advertise our business for traffic going east bound and west
bound, but since we cannot construct this sort of sign, we are currently limited to
simply an awning sign that would face directly toward Cantrell and might be
difficult to see as vehicles pass by.
Therefore, we are respectfully asking that the city allow us to paint our business
name on the west side of the building so can advertise to traffic traveling east
bound on Cantrell. Our painted sign (as seen in the attached photo) will be 10%
of the square footage of the side wall that is resides on. In this case, the building
wall is 39.5" long by 12" tall so our logo would be 10% of the total square footage
— 47.4 square feet. This will actually be significantly smaller than the current
Nationwide painted sign that is on the right upper side of the west wall of the
building. It is currently 18% of the total square footage of the side wall.
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