City planners may decide to rethink Charleston's rules on digital signs after a divided Board of Zoning Appeals voted on a related matter Thursday morning.
The board's 3-2 vote approved a proposed variance of the city's zoning ordinance by National Travel.
The business plans to install a 130-square-foot digital sign over its entrance at 164 Court St., across from Charleston Town Center mall. Digital signs generally are prohibited in city limits, with few exceptions.
The approval came with some conditions, such as requiring the use of an automatic dimming sensor to lower the sign's brightness at night, and requiring that the sign can't contain any moving images.
Michael Fry, systems programmer at National Travel, told the board one reason the sign is needed is to quickly market vacation specials, which typically last only a week or two, to prospective customers.
"We don't have the time frame that's needed to get a good marketing campaign together to get [those deals] out to the public. If we had the ability to be able to push those savings out in a quick manner, we'd be able to get them to save a lot of money, and increase business for us," Fry said.
Both Mayor Danny Jones and City Councilwoman Mary Jean Davis spoke in favor of the proposed variance, noting that the sign's added lighting would improve visibility and safety along pedestrian-friendly Brawley Walkway.
"We're trying to make people feel secure and safe to walk from the mall to Capitol Street, so the more activity or lighting we have, it's going to make people feel more safe," Davis said.
Board of Zoning Appeals chairman Courtland Smith pointed out that the board has only made "very tailored exceptions" to the rule prohibiting digital signs.
"The biggest hardship is differentiating yourself from the people that we denied versus the people we accepted," Smith said.
Last year, Young's Floral also applied for a variance of the sign rules to hang a digital sign at its location.
The board denied that request, in part because the sign's images would have been moving and would be visible from a major thoroughfare, sparking safety concerns about potentially distracted drivers.
Doug Skaff, with St. George Orthodox Cathedral, spoke in opposition to the proposed sign due to concerns it would have a domino effect, leading to other businesses nearby requesting digital video signs. The church butts up to Brawley Walkway.
"Our concern is the next sign that comes in. We don't want that area to turn into Times Square for Charleston, West Virginia," Skaff said.
Smith and board member Charles Roskovensky voted against the variance, while members Bill Hairston, Mary Anne Crickard and Mary Jo Cleland voted in favor.
While the technology of digital signs has become more sophisticated, Smith said he hopes the city will review the city's existing rules on them.
"Our objection to this is, I think this board could be absolutely inundated with sign [requests]," Smith said. "I feel we're entering some uncharted waters. It's going to be difficult for us in deciding who can have a big, lit up sign and who can't,"
Planning Department Director Dan Vriendt said Wednesday that he'll recommend that City Council's Planning Committee review Charleston's laws on digital signs.
"We reviewed it a couple years ago to see if we wanted to make any policy changes. It's probably ripe to ask them to revisit it again," Vriendt said.
He speculated that one possible compromise on digital signs could be requiring the visuals to remain static.
Vriendt also noted there are a few exceptions to the city's rules on digital signs in areas of "major public assembly in the general business district."
The Clay Center, Appalachian Power Park, Civic Center and Municipal Auditorium are all exempt from existing rules.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.