BZA wants more info on Hope Gas sign request
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MORGANTOWN - The Morgantown Board of Zoning appeals needs more information before it can rule on a pair of variance requests regarding signage proposed for the Hope Gas corporate headquarters at 781 Chestnut Ridge Road.
Earlier this week, City Neon USA came before the body seeking relief from city standards pertaining to size, illumination and animation of signs in a B-1 (neighborhood business) district.
City Neon is looking to construct a 20-foot tall, internally illuminated monument sign for Hope Gas that would include a slowly rotating topper depicting the company's flame logo. Per city code, signs in the B-1 district are restricted to six feet in height and cannot be illuminated or animated.
But it's not so much the details of this specific sign that gave the BZA pause. After all, that's what the variance process is for, and, as City Neon President Dan Smith pointed out, there are multiple signs currently in the district that have been granted such relief.
The issue that ultimately prompted the board to table the request is the fact that the sign location and the Hope Gas facility sit on separate parcels, both of which were once owned by Mylan Pharmaceuticals. In fact, the parking lot parcel where the sign to be replaced sits is within city boundaries while the actual building is outside the city.
That, Micro Outdoor Advertising owner Russ Bonasso said, is a problem. According to Bonasso, the sign and the building being on separate parcels constitutes off-premises advertising.
"I want to start first by saying, before we get too deep in the woods, I'm in full support of this sign. I have no objection ... My concern about this sign is that if the city of Morgantown allows it, you have then allowed off-premise advertising inside the city limits, which you do not allow," he said. "So, if you do allow this sign. I will say that if you do give it credence and allow this, then I am going to make an application for digitals or signage inside the city limits. That's not a threat. That's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and other companies probably would do so."
Micro Outdoor Advertising deals in billboards. Due to the jigsaw nature of city boundary lines, the company has a digital billboard that sits next to the Happy Smoke vape shop at 803 Chestnut Ridge Road. It's within a few hundred feet of the Hope Gas sign, but outside city limits.
Bonasso went on to say that the West Virginia Department of Transportation also has standards when it comes to off-premises advertising along state routes like Chestnut Ridge Road (WV 705).
Morgantown Zoning Administrator Sailor Thompson advised the board that if it chose to table the matter, the city's planning office could look into some of the points raised by Bonasso.
"We could potentially look to verify that, how it's looked at ... Because at least based on our kind of review, there might be some discrepancy between what's considered on/off [premise]; the connection of neighboring parcels and things like that," Thompson said.
That's what the BZA chose to do.
"I think we need to determine that," BZA Chair Chris Benison said. "We're going to need more information. We just are."
In other news out of the BZA, the body approved a "Restaurant, Private Club" conditional use for 1942 Tacos & Tequila, a new restaurant/bar coming to 350 High St.
The conditional use is a city requirement for any establishment planning to sell liquor.
Lastly, the body approved variance relief permitting an internally illuminated sign in the B-1 district for Ruchi Priya Indian Kitchen at 3109 University Ave.