Agenda

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Item # 10.

Council Meeting

Meeting Date:	06/22/2021
Department:	Development Services

AGENDA CAPTION:

Present, Discuss, and Consider Action on an Ordinance Granting a Meritorious Exception to Chapter 62 of the Code of Ordinances for the Addison Airport Customs and Border Protection Facility, Located at 4545 Jimmy Doolittle Drive, in Order to Exceed the Total Effective Area and the Maximum Allowable Logo Height for Attached Signs. Case MR2021-006.

BACKGROUND:

Construction for the new U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facility at the Addison Airport is nearing completion. A remaining task is the installation of site and building identification signage. To complete this process, Addison Airport staff is requesting a Meritorious Exception to the Town’s sign ordinance to install wall signage reflecting occupancy by Addison Airport and US Customs and Border Protection staff.

With this project, Addison Airport staff submitted sign permit applications for four wall signs, which includes two Addison Airport signs and two U.S. Customs and Border Protection signs. One of each of these signs will be located on the western building façade (facing the airfield) and the eastern building façade (facing the Addison Airport Toll Tunnel).

For each attached wall sign, text and logos are limited to 27 inches in height, with up to 50 percent of the text and logos comprising each sign permitted to exceed this maximum height by 25 percent (allowing a maximum letter and logo height of 33.75 inches). All lettering in each of the four proposed wall signs comply with this requirement. For the two Addison Airport wall signs, the blue circle that comprises the background of the Town logo, exceeds this requirement by 50.25 inches for the wall sign on the eastern façade, and 26.25 inches for the wall sign on the western façade.

Additionally, the Town’s sign ordinance limits the total effective sign area that can be accommodated on a building. The Town’s sign ordinance defines effective area as the area enclosed by drawing a rectangle of horizontal and vertical lines which fully contain all extremities of the sign drawn to scale, including architectural design elements such as decorative bordering, but exclusive of the sign supports. The measurements are to be calculated from the viewpoint which gives the largest rectangle of that kind as the viewpoint is rotated horizontally around the sign.

For this building with multiple wall signs, the maximum permitted effective area is 200 square feet, and the cumulative effective area for the four attached wall signs is 220 square feet. The proposed signage for this building exceeds the maximum effective area due to the placement of the Town logo on two of the signs.

The applicant is pursuing a Meritorious Exception to the sign ordinance in accordance with the below code provision:

Town of Addison Code of Ordinances, Chapter 62 (Signs)
Section 62-33. – Meritorious exceptions.
(d)(3) The council may consider appeals on the basis that such regulations and/or standards will, by reason of exceptional circumstances or surroundings, constitute a practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship or on the basis that the proposed improvement although falling under the definition of a "sign," constitutes art that makes a positive contribution to the visual environment.

For this proposal, staff believes the hardship criteria of the Meritorious Exception requirements is met, based on the following considerations:

The signs for this facility are setback over 150 feet from surrounding roadways and reducing the scale of the Town logo would result in lettering that would be very difficult to see from Jimmy Doolittle Drive. On the airfield side of the project, it is equally important to have an appropriately sized sign to help visitors become oriented to their surroundings upon arrival. From an aesthetic standpoint, a much smaller sign would be poorly scaled to this building.
In addition to Addison Airport staff, this building is also occupied by a federal agency, US Customs and Border Protection, which requires its own dedication signage in accordance with federal standards. If this agency did not require signage, the proposed signs for this building would comply with the maximum effective area requirement.

For private and public properties served by the Airport, the Town has not historically applied the Town’s sign ordinance to airfield facing signs that are not visible from the public right-of-way. Staff supports continuation of this approach; however, it would be best if this practice and other airport specific signage considerations were to be formalized via adoption of a Special Sign District for Addison Airport.

Staff recommends approval of this Meritorious Exception request and will begin drafting an Addison Airport Special Sign District as part of the UDC development process.

RECOMMENDATION:

Administration recommends approval.

Attachments
Ordinance - Meritorious Exception for the US Customs and Border Protection Facility
Presentation - Meritorious Exception for the Addison Airport US Customs and Border Patrol Facility