PL MINUTES 11191985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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-2- 1 No one present reported failure to receive the notice or objected to its content 2 and the only person present to speak to the issue was Lon Helgemo-, representing the 3 bank. 4 5 The Manager told Chair Franzese the City tries to avoid setting signage precedents 6 but he perceived an example of a similar situation would be when the City granted 7 a second variance to the original variance for a large free standing sign which 8 permitted the addition of the message "24 Hour Teller Service" to the existing 9 Twin City Federal Savings and Loan Association sign in front of the bank's build- 10 ing at 3819 Silver Lake Road. Mr. Childs also verified that the St. Anthony 11 National Bank already had a free standing identification sign, as well as the sign 12 bn their- building, but indicated the requested sign would be much smaller than the 13 TCF sign. Commissioner Bowerman suggested the bank might be able to add the 14 same message to their existing monument sign. 15 16 Mr. Helgemo defended the bank' s request for additional signage by saying this sign 17 had not been requested as a service for the bank's regular customers, but rather, 18 to identify to other Cirrus bank card holders that an instant cash machine had been 19 provided for their convenience in the bank lobby. He then explained that Cirrus 20 was the clearing house for handling a nationwide network of instant cash machine 21 transactions. 22 23 The hearing was closed at 7:47 P.M. for a Commission discussion of the request 24 and the recommendation which would be forwarded to the Council . 25 26 Commissioner Bowerman indicated he perceived ATM's (automatic teller machines) 27 were a fairly common type of installation all over the area. His concern was 28 that, since the City had already permitted the bank to have one free standing 29 sign identifying this as a banking institution, to permit a second sign of the same 30 type to identifyan ATM service within the building might establish -a precedent 31 the City might not want to follow if other public service installations like 32 grocery retailers, decided to request additional signage to identify the cash 33 machines they also had provided in their own facilities . 34 35 Commissioner Bjorklund agreed the City might be opening the way for other financial 36 institutions like Midwest Federal Savings and Loan in Apache to request additional 37 signage to let people know they also have ATM's . He wondered if the petitioners 38 couldn't get the message told somewhere on the building if they hadn't used up 39 all the signage space allocated to them in the ordinance. 40 41 Commissioner Hansen disagreed that granting such a sign to a bank whose business 42 is exclusively money transactions would open the way for a Town and Country or a 43 Kentucky Fried Chicken, who deal in food, to expect similar signage. He per- 44 ceived the existing market made it essential for the bank to provide the instant 45 cash machine service, if they want' to compete, and he saw no problem with granting 46 a variance which would allow them to do so. 47 48 Commissioner Wagner said he perceived the service the bank would be offering was 49 geared to the whole community, and not exclusively to its own customers . He 50 pointed out that the requested sign would be very unobtrusive and would not be 51 harmful to the aesthetics of the bank building. 52 53 Commissioner Bjorklund recalled that the Planning Commission had recommended 54 against the additional logos on the Midwest Federal building and he indicated he 55 perceived that to permit the extra signage for the bank would give them more 56 signage than even Apache Plaza is permitted.