Laserfiche WebLink
Metadata
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015 Laserfiche. All rights reserved.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – OCTOBER 25, 2023 4 <br /> <br />Commissioner Brausen thought Arden Hills has a clear division between business and housing. <br />Areas such as County Road E and Lexington South of 694 in Arden Hills are all businesses. <br /> <br />Commissioner Gronquist liked having many districts and thought changing all of them would <br />be more confusing. She liked that the other cities were relative to the size of the building and <br />noted that Arden Hills didn’t take that into consideration. If a business needs signage on two <br />sides of a building they have to split the amount between the signs without taking the size of the <br />building into account. She thought the way a building is situated should be taken into account. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Fransen said in the case of having more than one frontage, typically applicants <br />would apply for whichever sign district they have greater flexibility in. <br /> <br />Community Development Director Jagoe added that as an example, if there was property at <br />the corner of Lexington and County Road E, they look at what was considered to be the lot front. <br />City Code says the lot frontage with the wider width is the side. The property would still have <br />one front lot line. <br /> <br />Commissioner Williams felt 16 variances in 21 years didn’t seem like that much. He wondered <br />if they had been clustered recently so this has become an issue. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Fransen said the intent was the group would come from the perspective of <br />businesses and how the sign code could be improved for the business and residential community. <br /> <br />Council Liaison Rousseau said about ten percent of planning cases this year are sign code <br />related. <br /> <br />Commissioner Gronquist stated that there are likely businesses that decide not to apply for a <br />sign code adjustment because of the time and hassle. <br /> <br />Commissioner Brausen thought a percentage of the building facing the main roads would be <br />easiest. <br /> <br />Commissioner Gronquist felt if we base on size and there are different sized tenants it could <br />look a little hodge-podgy on the building if tenants all have different size signs. She noted this <br />could be an aesthetic issue in the long run. <br /> <br />Commissioner Williams wondered if there were businesses on Lexington when the ordinance <br />was created. A lot has likely changed since it was put in place. <br /> <br />Commissioner Subramanian wondered how the sign districts were determined and how <br />different locations were grouped together with the same sign requirements. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Fransen commented on the location and development in the locations of the <br />sign districts. <br /> <br />Commissioner Williams offered that maybe some of the sign districts could be combined to be <br />simpler and to address challenges when a property is on a corner lot with two frontages.