Verizon Wireless Sign Approved with Amendments

The Board of Adjustment Monday night voted to approve a variance for Verizon Wireless to add a third sign on the east facing wall of their building, smaller than the one first proposed by the phone store.

The board said that the original proposal, which included a 28.53 square foot sign, was not acceptable. According to the town ordinance, corner lots are allowed to have a second sign with dimensions no greater than 10 feet by 1.5 feet with a total square footage of 15 feet. The proposed sign was nearly twice that number.

Verizon Wireless stressed the necessity of an east facing sign, explaining to the board that many of their customers come from the east. 70% of the store traffic comes from outside Westfield, Jeffrey Paszkiewicz, Verizon Wireless associate director of real estate, said, and 50% of the out of town traffic comes from the east, which at the moment is the direction of the only unmarked side of the building.

The board agreed that the store needs a third sign, despite the fact that the town's land use ordinance regarding corner lots only allows for two signs on the street facing sides of the building.

The original plan proposed by Verizon Wireless included moving the sign that is currently on the west side of the building above the entrance to the north facing side, the one that faces North Avenue. The sign that is currently on the north side of the building would then move to the spot above the entrance on the west side of the building.

The store proposed placing the 28.53 square foot sign on east side of the building. Together, the total square footage of signage would be under 75 square feet, which was the maximum total square footage agreed upon in a previous variance issued by the board.

However, it was the size of the easterly sign that kept the board from approval.

Michael Tobia, a planner who testified on behalf of Verizon Wireless, said that while the building is effectively a corner property, it is offset 150 feet back from the intersection of Central Avenue and North Avenue. For this reason, he said, the east facing wall of the building requires a larger sign than the 10 feet by 1.5 feet ordinance allows.

"There was math and intelligence behind the size of the sign beyond the [75 square foot total sign space limit] and its readability and legibility to our customers," Paszkiewicz said. He said that "math and intelligence" was not presented at the meeting.

Because the board would not approve Verizon Wireless' request, the store suggested an alternative. Store officials suggested leaving the west facing sign, which has an area of 15.42 square feet, where it is, putting on the north side of the building an exact duplicate of the west sign, and putting the current north facing sign on the east side.

After deliberating for one hour and forty five minutes, the board approved this proposal unanimously and granted the variance. About the agreement, Paszkiewicz said, "I think it was fair."