Two developers want exceptions to Anna's sign rules, and city staff is telling the City Council to say no to both when it meets Tuesday, Oct. 27.
The first request would let a Murphy USA fuel station at North Central Expressway and Rosamond Parkway put up a pole sign 75 feet tall. City code caps commercial pole signs at 35 feet, so the request is 114% over the limit. Drawings in the council packet show a two-sided sign carrying the Murphy USA name with unleaded and diesel prices.
According to the staff report, the applicant compares the request to the tall highway signs at QT, Love's and Flying J. Staff recommends denial, writing that the owner has shown no unnecessary hardship and that the sign would more than double the height the city's adopted sign regulations allow. The site sits in a commercial corridor that is still being developed.
The second request comes from the Sherley Farms subdivision, which is also under construction. Its builder wants an entry sign with internally lit letters and a sign face of 633 square feet, according to the staff report. Anna's rules bar internal lighting on subdivision entry signs in single-family districts and limit them to 200 square feet.
The draft ordinance attached to the item would set the maximum at 640 square feet.
Staff also recommends denying that one. The report says the sign does not meet the ordinance, does not fit the look of the subdivision and works against the city's effort to protect dark skies. The city's sign rules are meant to keep light and visual clutter out of residential areas, the report says.
If the council approves either variance, the draft ordinances would apply only to the sign location shown in each application.
