
{"id":17049,"date":"2011-03-31T12:36:05","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T16:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=17049"},"modified":"2011-03-31T12:36:05","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T16:36:05","slug":"council-delays-decision-on-larger-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/03\/31\/council-delays-decision-on-larger-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Council delays decision on larger signs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nBy Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday agreed to hold off on a decision on major changes to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sign ordinance to give residents more time to weigh in on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>At its meeting at Town Hall, the council opted to delay a decision on allowing 12 major retail centers around town to increase the size of their signs. Current town law restricts the size of signs to 15 square feet and limits the number of tenants a center can list.<\/p>\n<p>The new ordinance has been scaled back since last seen by the council at a public hearing in mid-February. It would allow developments like Meadowmont and Southern Village and retail centers like Eastgate and University Mall to increase the size of their signs up to 120 square feet along 35 mph roads and 144 square feet along 45 mph roads. Maximum height of signs would rise from 8 to 14 feet.<\/p>\n<p>At the council meeting, resident Madeline Jefferson implored the council to give citizens more time to learn about what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being proposed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not Durham, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not Raleigh, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not a big commercial area,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that the town was small and most people know what stores are located in the centers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need huge signs to tell us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Council member Penny Rich said the signs were important to help visitors find their way around. She and other council members said they were cautious about the idea and wanted to make sure there were safeguards in the ordinance to keep the signs tasteful.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it to look too tacky,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rich said.<\/p>\n<p>Also on Monday night, the council received an update on the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s library-expansion project and the temporary move of the Chapel Hill Public Library to University Mall.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Town Manager Bruce Heflin said the library will occupy two spaces at the mall, with the main services located in the former Hungate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s space near Dillard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and a technical services and administrative space near A Southern Season.<\/p>\n<p>Town Manager Roger Stancil said he expects construction to start in August or September. Bids for the project will be let in June, he said. <\/p>\n<p>The council in February nixed a deal with University Mall to permanently relocate the library to the mall, deciding to pursue the expansion of the current location. Voters approved bonds for the project in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>In other action the council:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 established a new Community Policing Advisory Committee made up of nine citizens and agreed to start advertising for citizen volunteers to join the new committee; and<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 rescheduled consideration of rezoning and special use permit applications for the Aydan Court project on the north side of N.C. Highway 54 at the request of developer Carol Ann Zinn. The council will consider the proposal, which includes 90 condominiums on 5.8 acres, at its April 25 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday agreed to hold off on a decision on major changes to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sign ordinance to give residents more time to weigh in on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17049"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17095,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions\/17095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}