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County cracks down on big signs
By JAMES THORNER One of the biggest features of life in Pasco County, mural-like business signs glowing under Buggy flood lights, is headed for the endangered list. Once the height of leniency when it came to letting businesses erect signs, Pasco proposes reducing, in some case radically, what companies can plop in front of their stores. Until this year, the county rubber-stamped nearly every request from the likes of Kmart, Winn-Dixie and Eckerd drugstores for higher and wider signs. But this year retailers were rocked by two well-publicized rejections of sign enlargement requests, from a Wal-Mart supercenter at Little Road and State Road 54 in New Port Richey and a SuperTarget at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and County Line Road in Wesley Chapel. Both complained the 300 square feet of display area wasn't enough to capture the eyes of potential customers. Target, scheduled to open in March, plans to reapply for the larger signs. "I think it was a real shocker to those businesses," said Kathryn Starkey, an officer with the nonprofit group Scenic Pasco, which has stressed roadside beautification. "They said, "You've always done it before. Why did you reject it now?' " Businesses might have even more reason to complain early next year, when Pasco considers not just a stricter sign ordinance, but also an "overlay district ordinance." Exceeding even the new sign ordinance in toughness, the overlay ordinance would govern largely undeveloped corridors such as Bruce B. Downs in Wesley Chapel, U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes and SR 54 east of the Suncoast Parkway. Among the possible changes in the tentative overlay ordinance (The final version should be ready early next year): Shopping centers now can erect pylon or pole signs along the road. The overlay ordinance is expected to ban such signs in favor of smaller masonry monument signs. Tighten rules that limit signs to a combined total area of 300 square feet. According to the consultant's study on which the ordinance is based, even the biggest future shopping center could erect signs no bigger than 64 square feet. The county would demand businesses plant denser landscaping and adhere to specific architectural standards, probably in a still-undefined "Florida Style." Starkey insists Pasco residents are growing more sophisticated when it comes to highway appearance. The U.S. 19 model -- a sea of billboards, garish store signs and treeless parking lots -- will no longer do. "What's allowed now is so inappropriate it should be thrown out as fast as we can," Starkey said. She has found converts in County Administrator John Gallagher and County Attorney Bob Sumner. Gallagher said he was surprised, when he joined the county's Development Review Committee two years ago, how staffers routinely granted variances to let stores exceed the 300-square-foot sign limit. In the five years since December 1996, the county approved 11 of 14 such sign variances. The three rejections have been in the past 14 months. In its failed attempt to quadruple the allowable sign area at its Little Road super store, Wal-Mart stressed precedent: What the county had always done, the county should continue to do. Gallagher said he has grown weary of another familiar argument against tougher standards: That Pasco isn't a Sarasota, Naples or Coral Gables. Gallagher said the county need only peek over the border into Hillsborough County, whose Bruce B. Downs Boulevard overlay district, mandating smaller signs and lusher landscaping, is an obvious model. "People can't say anymore that it's just Coral Gables' stuff that won't work in Pasco," he said. The Pasco side of Bruce B. Downs is the center of the latest fight over signs. SuperTarget wants to double the space of its wall signs. Some Wesley Chapel neighbors fear a new eyesore. Target officials have sought a compromise. If neighbors support their wall sign enlargement plans, Target will replace its existing pylon sign with a smaller monument sign. Since the county approved Target's construction plans before passage of an overlay ordinance, the retailer isn't bound by the stricter sign standards of that ordinance. But that doesn't mean neighbors can't try to pressure the retailer, a course of action suggested by Scenic Pasco. Gallagher said Target should install the monument sign regardless of whether the store gets permission for a bigger wall sign. "That's the way to be a good neighbor," he said. Outcome of Pasco County sign enlargement requests over the past 5 years, starting with the most recent: NOVEMBER 2001: SuperTarget in Wesley Chapel, DENIED JANUARY 2001: Wal-Mart supercenter at Little Road and State Road 54, DENIED LATE 2000: Wendy's at Little and Ridge roads, DENIED AUGUST 2000: Sam's Club, Trouble Creek Road and U.S. 19, APPROVED MARCH 1999: Hess gas station, Ridge Road, APPROVED MARCH 1999: Hess station, Little Road, APPROVED OCTOBER 1998: Lowe's Home Center. Little and Ridge roads, APPROVED SEPTEMBER 1998: Kmart, Collier Boulevard and State Road 54, APPROVED AUGUST 1998: Eckerd drugstore, U.S. 41 and SR 54, APPROVED JULY 1998: Kmart, Hudson, APPROVED MARCH 1998: Eckerd, Port Richey, APPROVED JUNE 1997: Home Depot, U.S. 19 in Holiday, APPROVED JUNE 1997: Holiday Inn Express, Interstate 75 and SR 54, APPROVED JUNE 1997: Winn-Dixie, Moon Lake Road and SR 52, APPROVED
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