By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — It was a bad sign for Amazon on Tuesday night when the Architectural Review Board rejected the corporate giant’s design for a sign to hang above its new Amazon Fresh grocery store at 1076 Post Road East.
The proposed sign, which was emblazoned with the famous Amazon logo, was rejected in a 3-to-1 vote.
The new Amazon Fresh store is planned to open in the Post Plaza in the space that previously housed Barnes & Noble bookstore and Marshalls.
Although the ARB members pronounced the green-and-white sign “handsome,” “attractive” and “modest for the size of the building,” concerns of adjacent neighbors Mitchell and Elizabeth Higgins convinced the ARB to send Amazon back to the drawing board.
The couple expressed worry about the sign’s visibility from their Iris Lane home.
The 8-by-9-foot sign is two feet higher than regulations allow and the company would have to get a variance from Westport’s Zoning Board of Appeals before they could hang it.
Redesign Suggested
ARB members said, however, that the sign should be redesigned to meet regulations without a variance.
“Did you consider an alternative to the logo, so the sign wouldn’t be two feet larger than permitted?” board member David Mann asked Garry Potts, managing partner with the Indiana-based company Professional Permits, who was representing Amazon.
If the sign was made linear, Mann said, instead of stacking the words in the logo, it would be less visible to the neighbors and not require a variance.
“Your building is very horizontal. It would take that [linear] sign very well,” agreed board member Vesna Herman. “You could develop a sign that is more horizontal.”
Potts said that the sign that was planned to hang over the main façade of the new store was to direct customers to the entrance, and that the light of the sign would not encroach on the neighbor’s property.
Sign “won’t be a nuisance”
“The sign will be visible, but won’t be a nuisance,” he said, noting that Amazon has not used any horizontal wall signs before.
But the Higgins couple did not agree.
“From where their sign is positioned, we will be able to see it from our kitchen, and our second and third floors,” Mitchell Higgins said. “The sign is facing residential property in the back, not facing the Post Road,” he said.
The couple also objected to the new lights planned for the building’s parking lot, saying that they were taller than the lights in the lot when the previous tenant, Barnes and Noble, occupied the space.
Ward French, commission chair, said that although the ARB was sympathetic to the neighbors’ concerns, the board was there to consider the aesthetics of the sign and not the parking lot lighting.
He was the one member that did not vote to reject Amazon’s design for the sign.
Back to the Drawing Board
Although the ARB’s role is advisory, Potts said that he would present the idea of a horizontal sign to Amazon.
Although the store façade appears to be mostly complete, except for the sign, the interior of the Amazon Fresh store remains empty.
It is not clear when the new store will open, nor whether Amazon will return to the ARB with a different proposal.
Sounds strange to not have the sign approved when the permit was first issued for the building. So all permitting can be accepted and done. Why would one wait to the end of the process to approve the sign. Oh… I forgot….. it was a “secret”, and no one was supposed to know that it was AMAZON. Sounds prime to me!
Typically sign permits are taken out subsequent to building approval and construction is under way. All signs greater than 40 sq. ft. require an ARB appearance. This proposed sign does not conform to zoning regulations as the front of the building has a false façade
and the sign will be above the roofline behind it. The neighbors are absolutely correct and need to be supported by Westport Zoning officials.
Michael thank you for your input.
This is the usual for this company, just their needs
Wants and thinks. Westport keep showing while we welcome business, they have to respect the people in town ( who are also potential customers, not just people from other towns). At some point Westport has to stop turning into the city it so wants to be. You have to balance building and living within the perimeters of what this town’s infrastructure can realistically handle, thou it’s obviously to late , as the saying goes Westport used to be nice, but now it’s just like all the other cities. The word TOWN has long been gone to describe Westport. To be fair just like the other used to be towns around Westport.
Building up doesn’t always balance out and reduce taxes, a real look at the bigger cities will show you.
Why did you give in to all the city people moving in who wanted the comfort of city conveniences also allow it to happen instead of saying this is a town
Not the city. We welcome you but town life is different then the city.
To late now. Westport has become the city that never sleeps too.
To even have considered taking on Amazon in a Town of Westport/Amazon business relationship was foolish.
The results can almost be written today for this 3rd wealthiest town in the nation.
Just like developer Felix Charney does, Amazon will do the same….keep dumping the money to win their “wants “
Wave a few potential Amazon lawsuits in front of the Town Attorney for Westport s, and see yet one more time , Monet navigates the moral and statutory compass for our Town
The proposed sign does not conform to zoning regulations. In order to get a variance, the applicant must show hardship. There is no hardship as defined by the laws regulating the zoning board of appeals. The sign needs to be changed to confirm to zoning requirements.