We have received more than a few emails and blog comments asking if the sign in front of the new Wachovia is too big. The general tenor of the queries? It doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the building, which was planned and built to keep some of the ambience of the building it replaced.
The sign, however, is not too big. According to Glynda Bergmann, the city’s sign expert, it’s well within the parameters of the sign ordinance.
She emailed me that its size — 8 feet tall, with 110 square feet of area — is what the original permit called for. "According to the sign inspector for that area, this sign meets the rules," she wrote.
Why the confusion? The sign, apparently, was not included in the revised zoning plan that was agreed to by the bank and the neighborhood. And since it wasn’t covered in the plan, the sign size defaults to the general city ordinance.
