PL MINUTES 11171987 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1 At 8 :.12 P.M. , the Chair opened the public hearing on the request from 2 Rapid Oil Change, 3701 Silver Lake Road,. for a variance to the City • 3 Sign Ordinance to allow the business to retain the pylon sign permitted 4 only to gas stations now that all gas pumps have been removed from the 5 property. No one present reported failure to receive or objected to 6 the content of the notice of the hearing which had been published in 7 the November 4th Bulletin or mailed to all property owners of record 8 within 250 feet of the subject property. 9 Proponents Argue Condemnation Led to Loss of Gas Business 10 Mark Gilbertson and Steve Moldenhauer, Project and Regional Managers 11 for Rapid Oil Change argued that: 12 *the reason Rapid Oil had gone out of the gas business had basi- 13 cally been because the condemnation and widening of 37th Avenue 14 had physically removed one pump island and created so much con- 15 gestion around the remaining island it became unusable for them 16 for a long period of time; 17 *although the gas business admittedly was a second business for 18 Rapid Oil, it had been a profitable one which was lost to them 19 when the company decided not to pay for replacing the deteriorat- 20 ing tanks, which might have been done, if four pumps had remained 21 on the property; 22 *the City by its own action in 1984 had "grandfathered in" the 03 the pylon sign when it granted the variances for the existing 4 square footage on that building; 25 *the City' s sign ordinance allowing only gas stations to have 26 pylon signs might be out-of-date today when most gas stations 27 have dropped auto repair services substituting the sale of food 28 and other merchandise to make a profit; 29 *because the loss of land along 37th Avenue caused a stacking 30 problem in front of the building, Rapid Oil was now .forced to 31 change the access to the rear which necessitated a remodeling of 32 the building. 33 Mr. Gilbertson reported they already had a building permit for the 34 installation of double doors in the rear as well as for fixing up the 35 exterior, doing some painting, and updating the existing signage to the 36 company' s new image. He anticipated having to shut the business down 37 completely for three weeks in February during which time, Mr. Gil- 38 bertson said, without signage the public might get the idea Rapid Oil 39 had gone out of business and customers might be lost. 40 The Project Manager assured Commissioner Werenicz there were no plans 41 to level the structure or to exceed the 128 square feet of signage the 42 City had allowed them in 1984. Mr. Gilbertson added that studies 0 7