Town Center neighbors down on high-rise signs

Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 4, 1999 | 11:45 a.m.

After a three-hour barrage of public protest, Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown told residents there's room for compromise on three proposed 90-foot-high signs in Town Center's first commercial development.

However, the developer's use of terms like "gentle," "nice" and "pleasing" to describe the proposed signs seemed worlds apart from the words of choice of residents: "obnoxious," "pollutant" and "horrible blight."

Although Wednesday night's meeting at Cimarron Memorial High School was designed to forge a level of understanding about the planned Centennial Centre commercial development, many residents left just as confused and willing to protest the matter when it comes before the City Council at 5 p.m. Monday.

"Are they here to convince us that we're going to like 90-foot signs?" asked Kim Kallfelz, president of the Painted Desert Homeowner's Association.

For Kallfelz and many neighbors of the 2,000-acre Town Center, the item of contention isn't three signs, but a precedent-setting deviation from the standards, which many had worked on developing and others said they supported.

"I like Town Center, I think it's great," Kallfelz said. "But we never had 90-feet signs in mind."

The Town Center concept was designed to mimic the success of the planned Summerlin community as a way to manage growth and to "protect and preserve the residential development that was already growing out there," Brown said of the northwest region straddling U.S. 95 from Ann Road beyond Grand Teton Drive.

The area, originally zoned for high-density commercial use, was amended to Town Center zoning with its own design standards. When the standards were approved last November, residents urged Brown and the council to hold fast to the plan when developers asked for items that did not meet the standards.

The standards prohibit reader boards and billboards and specify other signs cannot be taller than 8 feet. But since the standards make no direct mention of freeway signs, developer Olympic Nevada Inc. said such signs should be governed by the city's regular zoning plan.

The zoning plan allows signs to be 30 feet higher than an existing overpass at a major highway. Since the planned development will be at the eventual interchange of U.S. 95 and the Las Vegas Beltway, developers estimated the overpass will be 60 feet high, allowing for a 90 foot sign.

City staff, including planning director Theresa O'Donnell, have recommended the council reject the plan because of its deviation from the spirit of the standards and because it could set a dangerous precedent.

Residents agreed, and turned out in force at a Jan. 25 City Council meeting, where action on the plan was postponed to allow for Wednesday's meeting to explain the developer's proposal. Residents said they sensed at that meeting that the council was ready to approve the signs and vowed even after hearing the developers and Brown to turn out again Monday, where the final decision will be made, to lodge their protests.

The planned 827,000-square-foot complex will include three anchor stores -- discount stores and membership clubs -- and seven auto dealerships, a park and restaurants. Although all three anchors have been signed, developers said Wednesday they are forbidden right now from discussing who they are.

Burt Dezendorf, a former real-estate agent for Wal-Mart who now works for the Centennial Centre developers, said retailers need freeway signs to enhance the visibility of the complex.

"I'm having trouble understanding why that type of sign is needed to attract customers when you have a magnet to draw them there already," said Timber Lake resident Tom Williams.

Another resident angrily asked Brown if he ever shopped at the Meadows Mall. When Brown answered yes, the resident demanded: "How did you find it? There aren't any signs."

Terri Sturm, who presented the developer's sign proposal, said the project will be a regional shopping center and will need the signs to alert people when to exit the freeway.

Architects for the project recently hoisted a banner 90 feet from a boom truck and took photos from varying distances to determine when drivers would be able to see the signs. However, the architectural drawings of those site distances didn't allay the residents' concerns.

The sign at Ann Road is a half mile away from the point at which drivers would have to exit for the center. Armed with the drawings, residents argued drivers wouldn't be able to read the sign to know when to exit.

"The idea isn't how much you can read on it," Sturm said. "The idea is that a sign is there."

The compromise Brown outlined for residents -- after the developer left the meeting -- proposes the sign nearest Timber Lake residential development could be lowered, or built up in stages coinciding with the height of the eventual overpass.

"Once this gets approved, every developer who comes in there will be able to point to this center and get the same thing," resident Arnie Petrella said.

But Brown denied that approval of the project, with the 90-foot signs in place, would set any precedents.

"We're not going to allow any guideline or standard to be thrown out if it would take away from the integrity of Town Center," Brown said.

If future developers come forth with similar freeway sign proposals, the matter likely won't cause as much controversy, because standards regulating such signs in Town Center are being drafted.

"In retrospect, we could say, 'Look guys, this isn't what we want,"' Brown said after many of the 130 residents and the developers had left.

Without the benefit of that hindsight, residents left the meeting hoping the developer will be willing to make a compromise.

"Without one sign we're going to be able to see this area," said Sherry Clark-Schizas who lives in Painted Desert. "Just by concentrating it alone, you won't need signage from the freeway."