Design Review Board - Regular Meeting

didn't hear meeing in Project yeah just a little good evening gentlemen okay can put your mic on can everyone hear us where's the feedback well that's sorry that's because that's a little too loud just put it right in the middle y thank you how was that all right it's a little bit but can you all hear us Neil's not moving there he is okay I'm here before GL to see you wearing a jacket Neil makes me feel better drive oh thank you okay 6:02 PM i' call the meeting design order for the month of January our uh attendance in includes commissioner wisman U as well as commissioner Clark uh and myself David man we're the only ones present but we represent a quorum uh first item of business would be the approval of minutes I have a motion from any of the members yeah I move approval of the minutes of December 5th uh I have one typo that I caught uh page two with the very end of item seven staff reports there's a um uh the word gry is misspelled it says gambi I think it's a third lineup from the the end of item seven was the only correction I had okay

so noted I'll make change sorry about that sir happens all time happens any comments any other comments or do I hear a second second then it's been moved and second it for approval all those in favor say I I I I the chair votes I let's move on minutes are accepted um new business is there someone here to present for uh WS are federal yes we have Mike and I'm promoting him one moment hello Mike you're on got Matt I'm sorry Matt Matt you're muted there there we go now I rebooted after I joined his panel can you guys all hear [Music] me thanks for joining you just like to speak just a little bit about um the rebranding sure you guys you can hear me right now uh we can hear you okay just want to double check still get some feedback yeah I apologize there are still people in the office uh so you might hear some background noise can you speak a little louder sure can you how about is that better can you hear same yeah well we'll do this we're going to get feedback here I'm not sure why okay I'm sorry go ahead Matt yeah so um first off uh thank you for your time tonight um my name is Matt um I work at artifacts I handle all the permits um I'm here representing W Federal uh for the Rebrand um we are

basically taking down what is existing um and replacing it um in many cases is going to be smaller um there's really no major changes to any of the signage outside of the brand uh in the logo changing um the only major difference is um in this is going to be directional signage um that is going to be all the way excuse me mat we cannot we cannot hear you uh can you turn your volume up higher or I know we have a problem we can hear but it just needs to be louder it's like watching a foreign movie how's that is that better is that about the same I did it didn't anything you it up get more of an echo let me see one moment okay can you try to speak again maybe closer to to your mic let's try that again anything we don't hear you at all now is that better any better I I can hear him faintly we can hear you but it it really does need to be a little bit louder if we can do that turn your mic off right now Matt how's that I don't know why it's the same it could be our system we don't know it's fine um it when it's recorded on YouTube live we'll be able to hear it so you can go

ahead and talk a little bit about it um I will then just summarize it for you but go ahead Matt continue is that any better no but go ahead um yeah so as I was saying the the directionals are um a taded bigger um the design is what we feel um is a little bit more representative of the brand we think it's a classier look um you know and we think that you know in all honesty this is a very tastfully done Rebrand um it's going to bring a lot of Vibrance uh to you know a major Bank um in Bloomfield um I don't know if you guys can hear me as well anymore but I can answer any questions uh that you may have about the package I'm just maybe that's maybe that's the best way to go because we had a chance to look briefly at your proposal my first question would be to staff and that is question with regard to uh ordinance requirements for the amount of signage does it meet the requirements of the Zone all the square footage these are all replacement whether or not it meets current um these are signage that already that's already on site and most likely part of a sign plan um by Statute it's been there for more than three years so they're pretty much grandfathered for those little signs in there it does meet our requirement ments as far as sizes they're not exceeding what is currently there um it that's all we have that's good for the record yeah start okay all

right want to ask you your question um yeah I it's not really uh it's more out of curiosity but I I noticed that the name of the bank is changing from a savings to a bank and I was curious what that uh what that meant other than a rebranding is there some legal uh change there in the status um I do not have any relevant information on that um you would have to contact the bank as to why that would be a change got it thank you I just I I just want to make one comment U going don't forget Neil yeah going through the uh the the plan um I I think the rebranding is your business it's not necessarily something that's subject to our design backgrounds of thinking I mean it it does meet your need uh I'm I'm not and not something that I feel encouraged to to to to to even discuss what I what I will ask on one of these pages though there are a couple of Drive-In signs that are puzzling because they're seem to be duplicative and in fact they show enter going the other way so I'm not sure if that's your plan enter looks like an exit to me but it's the one on I guess it's page four I don't know it's not marked but it shows two pylon signs one big pylon sign I think it's on senica road and um I is that's just an an example do you see what I'm looking at Matt it says enter and drive up and that's both out to the street so is that your plan or is

that a mistake give me uh I can share it I have the plans up you said page four page eight here's a page page eight um I believe those are just there um in terms of what the text says um because there are two existing directionals that are there I don't believe uh because I cannot read what the existing says uh in the top or whatever but I believe it does say exit I do believe that's just a text error on the drawings um the directional will be there uh in terms of text uh it most likely is going to say exit I think that's what it says on there yeah okay now I figured that just want to make the point before you before these things go in uh it I we had the staff tell us that there's no change in the amount of messaging message boarding but it does seem to be quite a lot of message boarding going on around this site uh I would uh I don't have any necessarily can't tell you to eliminate this or that but you know it just seems after a while there's so many signs that people can't tell where they're going after a while but I'm just just a comment and it may not be the professional one at that so I'll look to my other colleagues for some other commentary Neil you have have anything you want to

say yeah I have a question um I see on the crosssection on the let's see I guess it's the big building sign I don't know what page that's on but um the crosssection identifies 5,000k white LEDs 5,000 C and I just like you to explain to me what that is and how bright those are going to be um I know LED is the state-of-the-art but I don't I get a little concerned about the brightness of all this LED light that's on signage automobiles so forth uh tell me about that tell me what's going on in the state of the sign business and why this is a good idea oh and this is you said the crosssection you're referring to yeah and it's on the that the next looks like it's on page four yeah scroll down page four it's the section or Raceway typical building [Music] I don't know what that says method so it's the next it's the next drawing above this one before this one Lind that's well so I could just kind of expand a little bit um because I do know I believe it's page two if you scroll but just in general um so 5,000 Kelvin is you know it's basic basically where you're

sitting in right now is probably closer to to four uh 3 335 four um you know five is a little bit brighter um the great thing about with the light especially with The Branding of this color specifically um the on the federal has um blue um and shades of blue absorb light um immensely so even though it may seem bright on paper um the color absorb the color the the lighting that gets absorbed by the color um is really nominal and really is not necessarily um you know cause for concern this States white not blue it's and most of the coloring and the background is opaque so it's the light really doesn't um come through most of the sign just for where the letterings are and most of the letterings are kind of on a I wouldn't say darker color but it's pretty standard I know that will swar go ahead it at 5,000 as well okay all right just I I get and the one I'm I'm looking at is the 5,000k white LEDs um just the brightness of white LEDs these days seems to be very harsh and uh I don't know if I'm off base or not but just wanted to bring it up as a concern and the way I understand this there's one of these signs wall mounted that is white it's not colored and so Neil I think your comments would apply to that one sign right right the

one the letter is Windsor you referring to the one that is on page don't know it doesn't say What's it doesn't say which orientation it just says proposed W mounted sign on the brick page seven this sign it's a windsor Federal well there even the freestanding sign has 5,000 Calvin on that because it's it's right in between and so I know with the type of material and the acrylic I'm not sure what you know if you want to speak on that but I know that um the way that this is designning is to not allow so much of the brightness to come through okay well that's reassuring me yeah it it it will focus more on the lettering but it wouldn't be as bright okay otherwise I think it's a nice design and uh it's very clean um it's much Bolder than the other sign so maybe in terms of you know it's it's we can ask it's graphic impact it's a little stronger but I don't object to it I think it's a nice looking sign see I think Neil the one sign where the Windsor is white on the wall is not just acrylic letters yeah I was just about to comment on that all right that's good news yep I do have a question though the directional signs those are not going to be illuminated right the lettering on that those are nonilluminated so I understand I'm not the lighting engineer but I understand Kelvin that's

a warmer color at 5,000 but um in terms of the overall impact I I I I can't be sure what we're going to be expecting and how it compares to anything else out there the last thing I would want to have would be situation where you you're creating this extremely illuminated site that stands out from everybody else in town I don't know what the other requirements are is there a zoning requirement do we have an overall requirement not for the uh brightness of it it if you find it to be bright yes um I do have to say that I believe that the existing sign has it at 5,000 Well Fargo has it at 5,000 so it's very in line with what is there now I don't believe that it will be um you know brighter than the existing sign okay and is there any uh desire ability to dim these at night when the banks close I mean does it have to be fully lit or what is your plan for keeping this lit I can answer part of that I'm sorry the town has an ordinance um when they close or past 10 p.m business uh signs have to be turned off it it's more of a code ordinance enforcement we can make it a recommendation that they the lights even more at closing just in case but um because I know Banks do close at five um and then uh per Town ordinance businesses are to turn off their lights at seem like the proper thing to do environmentally and otherwise but you

know you have another question mark TP no I'm I'm uh agree with Neil it's cleaner um and I have no objection thank you okay um any other further questions Neil not for me well I'm feeling somewhat awkward in moving forward but I think we should see if there's a motion at least that we can discuss is there any is there a motion available you like to make anyone new I'll make a motion to approve the uh the signed package as submitted I'll second that in discussion um I appreciate the staff's comments about uh lighting matching what else is in town but I don't know that we spend the time to go and look at what's lit up at night in different places if there is no ordinance to that effect or maximization in light sources or utiliz using providing more light than is necessary because SP is closed uh it would seem as though I'd like to see take a look around and see what's lit up at night I did not see the effect of the new Wells Fargos light lighting uh and maybe that's something that I mean I feel a little bit little bit uncomfortable moving forward and especially since I I really couldn't even hear the applicant so uh I don't know I don't know how I'm going to respond to it I think the design is acceptable it's just a matter of light that we're talking about um is there a way that we can I mean I

Linda I appreciate your input and I hope that you know if if something goes wrong you'll stand by it but I don't know that uh it's hard it's hard for me at this point Okay jump on it you have any other thoughts or do you have any other thoughts discussion um unless unless we want to just forward some comments to uh the zoning commission about the lighting this is just a zoning sign off so it'll be administrative approval administrative approval that's okay this doesn't go to Z doesn't go to PPC okay because it's existing it's just a replacement all right well then any comments to staff yeah well you can you can make comments to to staff for as for their approval yeah I I would you know there's new technologies we aware of and uh some of them produce a lot more power for less energy and um that's a good thing but it may not be a good thing if it's totally over Illuminating a site and creating an issue I don't know that this will or not U but if but I would think it would be who us to take a look at some of these things in the overall or look at them specifically see one that's up and say well that would be acceptable you know it's not going to be a beacon I realize we're not a a downtown area where there's a lot of development and a lot of ambient light that's cast off which may be a plus or minus in in the area here uh a little bit more light may be good but there's nobody in the downtown so that doesn't necessarily incourage more like um I just don't want it to be glaring and I don't know I don't have the language to discuss that more of it okay we can definitely a

recommendation that it be dimmed um at night and that's even if it was okay you so probably want to dim these at night no reason to use additional electricity but that's another issue in terms of design I don't know what we're buying there yeah I have hard time yeah compare with any specific you mentioned the Wells Fargo I haven't seen it so I don't know compare and the closest yeah um the only thing I can think of is is is to get some kind of comparison to what's there now I mean we see the existing versus the new in terms of the graphics but there's nothing here about the brightness level Now versus is the brightness level with the new signage that's the only kind ofation I could make to understand if there is a difference or not yeah they did provide a rendering for you know the night vision type that gives an idea of how bright it's going to be um well maybe Matt can answer that question how much brighter as will this be than what's there now is that something you can comment on Matt uh c yeah certainly um hopefully you guys can hear me a little bit better I've been trying to mess around with the microphone in the meantime um the great thing about this stuff and kind of what you've alluded to it so 500 Kelvin is is anything you've seen like grocery stores at night anything you've seen like that like that is the standard across the board um so you've probably seen it and just unaware um with these signs too um they are a little bit sharper um and what Linda

alluded to as well with the the night views is that it's really only the letters that are lighting up um you know and these even though they're white um LEDs as they're called out there as I as I said before the the blue um the blue coloring on it absorbs a lot of the light um so I'm looking spe specifically on page eight um where you have a white background um but the letters um you know are blue and so you see that the white isn't lit up but it's strictly the letters so there's a minimal impact on the lighting um so I understand your concerns about the lighting it obviously it does seem Overkill um I do think that the renderings that because they are much it's a much more condensed and sharper uh than what's previously there so I I understand that there may be some cause for concern for that but um in retrospect it's it's really standard across what you already have in Bloomfield so are you saying that only the letterings letters themselves will be lit up and the background will not yeah right that's what this is showing okay is going to subdue it in addition okay Matt is is the lighting dimmable it certainly can be um you know if that's something that that this um you know committee would would like to see um you know we're amendable to it um we can put a dimer on there um you know we're open to you know working you know

with the town um you know to meet satisfactory requirements we did do that with the Wells Fargo signs where we you know asked them to you know um we had a provision that if if we thought it was too bright after being installed we would ask them to to dim them yeah that wasn't our recommendation for the for the Wells Fargo to that something that jumps off it's here that says only the lettering would be approv would be light turn tell hard to read doesn't give you the answer well shows it here the picture right and this the background isn't L at all [Music] go that's it right there well that's that's the one on the wall [Music] that's it is the lettering okay on that on that pylon sign it just looks like the lettering against that yeah daytime white background but nighttime it's just the lettering that looks pretty good to me yeah okay you have a motion on the floor yes yes we do a motion made in second is uh all those in favor I I okay uh do we have to be unanimous on this or you do not you have to just have a majority of those present voting I think I will abstain I I I would hope in the future we can get people to come in and present because it's awfully difficult when we don't know what we're looking at to have somebody we can't hear and apologize to you Matt because

of the setup whatever it was it's not your fault but we can't hear you anyway the motion passes two to one and uh thank you in touch tomorrow yes thank you I'm not really sure what's going on on my end but um usually I don't have any issues but you know next time I'll come in I'm right down the road so it's kind of no excuse we understand it happens okay uh thank you old business the schedule what was wrong with the schedule we passed you didn't indicate it was also technically we have to change it it's zoom and in person oh was just that wording there yeah that dat no no we want it to include hybrid okay do we need to vote on this that's my fault that's my fault technically you do yes yes canch vote on the revise okay can I have a motion to approve the uh the the meeting dates for for for 9th for 2025 I move we approve the revised meeting schedule as presented thank you second made second all those in favor I sh votes I it's unanimous okay that that was a tough bit of business staff reports commission member reports updates Neil any updates from your point of view down there and well I have I have a question that came up uh because I'm on the um public art commission um and we were talking about Provisions for public art within uh um ordinances and so forth and I wanted to ask our planning

staff if we have any ordinances uh for development uh that provides for or mandates um public art installations as of now we do not kneel but it is it's an item that is being worked on um by the revised Arts commission and also by the economic development commission um to to to to put in place um um ordinances um dealing directed at um public art and providing public art but at present we do not for some reason I had thought maybe it's just because it's been discussed before that we had a provision for money to be set aside on all public projects or installation of what I would call public art because it's open to the public you know buildings are open to the public well I was speaking to zoning regulations and other reg we we may I don't know whether do you have a provision in um on the library that you have to have some public art not that I know of I I recall way in the past where there was some federal Andor State Provisions when you know federal state money was involved there used to be some 2% uh requirement for for public art but I haven't seen anything like that in a long time you that's been discussed for a lot of years but it never found its way into the regul okay okay as I remember unless there was some discussion as part of the Town Center development previously yeah yeah yeah I know I know that a couple of times when we've been talking to uh some of the apartment developments and so

forth we have in our overview of uh you know enhancement design enhancement for a project we've stressed that we would appreciate that sort of thing um I also seem to recall there was some reference in the Tiff uh regulations that the money could be used for those kinds of things yeah and I think we've also encouraged developers to make provision I think we talked to Mr Butler about you know maybe identifying a spot on his property for artwork but it's it's just something that I'd like us to kind of keep in the uh you know in our minds and do what we can about because it speaks a great deal in my mind to the quality of uh our community and the art commission will work to Define what is art not necessarily David that's that's a that that good luck yeah good luck on that one but uh at least for M for municipal purposes okay okay I just want to bring that bring that up because it came thank you for that um I have anything either I did um find the reg regulation that indicated that this body the tpz could identify other areas that we can get involved in it's already been passed I think that was a discussion we had a while back we did we have not had that discussion at tpz yet okay but we will um and um I'm hoping that the uh PCD um plan of conservation and development will be released a week from tonight by the TPC for public review and for those of you who are interested in the Town Center that town

center commission is going to be very active in the in the coming weeks as they begin to really get in get U discussing um the specifics of the proposals will be recommending to the council with a view to um making a recommendation um by the end of February for Council review and action in March good are there any new projects coming along John anything that is in your radar on your radar again any new projects in on your radar that were uh any projects on our radar no the the um project which which technically would not come before us but seems to have um some some real although we have not seen anything in real detail yet is um a proposed significant residential development on um on um Griffin Road north um and that big vacant cornfield parcel um across across the street from the school which actually is in a design development Zone from way back when when Griffin Griffin Park was being developed and has remained in that zone probably now 25 years but was originally going to be developed as a retail development to support the commercial development they were never able to get an a tenant and um as you know there's been a variety of changes in ownership of the property um by by the same change of the company uh but there is some some significant interest right now from uh one developer in that property also I think that um that um phase four of um of the um apartment developments in in the Town Center I think we should be seeing some things on that uh as I'm

hearing relatively shortly and that of course will come come to you folks um I would say those are the um those are the the three significant Town Center in general um development of phase four of Tellus and Griffin North what about the one on the the old drive-in theater site which site theater that's the driving theater the that one that one's that one we should see groundbreaking um ground movement in in Spring that's received that's received all its approvals um is going through the building um permit process side it's all its land use rules in place and um is getting U also is close to getting its also signed off for its uh access to Blue Hills Avenue so that one um we should see some actions relatively soon that raises a question in my mind Jonathan uh the Blue Hills um what I forget what the project was called to improve the the the rway the the streetcape project streetcap project that is back in that was approved a while back I think I right and it was and it um uh sort of slid by the wayway but the new town engerer engineer has picked up and has um provided a lot of momentum and I think he's actually got that project out to bid it would seem as though with this new development coming in there there might be some opportunity to adjust some of those Street Scapes and be part of it so that actually I think the street scape starts just south stops just south yeah it runs from I think um uh doesn't come right the firehouse up to uh up to the intersection of Cottage Grove I think not sure that's the that

was the extent that we looked at years ago okay I'm not yeah I'll have to check on that but I mean there might be some way that this new development could enhance well one of the things we we requested and we've had conversations with is to to realign um the Northbound turning movement so there's actually a double left turn movement going north from from just south of this of the development site up to Cottage Grove Road so there's much better traffic Improvement in there okay but yeah um Rob is very much aware of what's going on and um I think um would be U receptive to your suggestion okay I know the the hard part will be probably tree planting to replace some of those trees that the tore down which makes the area look like a hellscape compared to what it was but I don't know if you have to move on the other side of the cemetery property to plant them or not I don't know that they've got enough room to plant the season a sizeable tree anyway so that's a question of coordination that's all I brought that up uh there any any other questions comments well no public comments either I don't think anybody's out there so I guess some motion for adjournment would be in order I move we adjourn good second second we are adjourned thank you very much Neil be well thank you thank you guys down there Neil 30 degrees here this morning so don't hi Joyce thank you good night guys think better than fires right yeah