The Franklin Park Zoning Hearing Board has said no to developers of a shopping center who had hoped to put bigger signs on their building. The board voted 5-0 not to permit signs on businesses in the Franklin Village Shopping Center to be larger than allowed by borough ordinance. Anthony Dolan of Walnut Capital Partners — the firm developing the shopping center at Route 910 and Brandt School Road — had requested a variance from the size restriction. According to the sign ordinance, businesses in the shopping center are not permitted to have a sign larger than 15 square feet. Dolan said he was requesting larger signs because the stores will be from 555 feet to 676 feet from the Route 910 stoplight at Brandt School Road and it will be difficult for passing motorists to determine which businesses are in the plaza if each only has a 15-square-foot sign. Although borough Manager Ambrose Rocca said he and borough council were agreeable to Dolan’s request, Dolan first had to get approval from the zoning hearing board. On Thursday, members of the zoning hearing board said Dolan failed to convince them that the larger signs were needed. Dolan had requested that instead of assigning 15 square feet of signage to each business that he be permitted to divvy up the total amount of signage allowed on the center’s storefronts. In addition to a planned Eat ‘n Park restaurant, the center could have as many as 22 businesses, Dolan said. Dolan calculated that if each had a 15-square-foot sign, there would be 330 square feet of signage on the building. Because a 25-square-foot sign is allowed to show the center’s name, the total square footage of signs then would be 355. Dolan asked the zoning hearing board to allow him to break down the total square footage of signage allowed and divide it among businesses based on how much square footage they leased. He also asked for a 10 percent increase in total signage. By using Dolan’s formula, if six businesses occupied the center’s square footage, for example, their sign size would be based on the amount of space they occupied in the center. If one business occupied 3,600 square feet, it would be permitted to have a sign that covered 54 square feet. A 1,200-square-foot business would be permitted to have an 18-square-foot sign. No sign, no matter how large the business, would be larger than 75 square feet, Dolan said. He said the formula would allow the businesses’ signs to be in proportion to the size of the store. For example, in most shopping centers, the large anchor stores have much larger signs than the smaller businesses. Without the larger signs, Dolan said, the center would look vacant, and people would be less apt to visit it. The signs would have lighted letters, which would be between 22 and 30 inches tall, Dolan said. Although the zoning hearing board members said they understood Dolan’s argument, they made it clear they did not agree. Chairman Glenn Lewis said he didn’t want to see large signs on the building. Board member Harold James argued most of the traffic passing by the shopping center would be people who frequently traveled the route and therefore would know what stores were in the center. Board member James Harper said he didn’t like Dolan’s formula of adding up the possible signage and dividing it. Rocca said despite the zoning hearing board’s opinion, other borough officials had supported Dolan’s formula and thought it was fair. Rocca said the borough’s current sign ordinance was not meant to apply to shopping centers. He said borough council might consider changing its sign ordinance to address shopping centers. Changing the ordinance would take at least two to three months, he said. Occupancy of the shopping center is expected to begin in February. The anchor tenant will be the Eat ‘n Park restaurant. Other businesses scheduled to move include Re/Max North, a real estate office that is relocating from Route 19 in Marshall Township; Quizno’s, a soup and sandwich shop; and Kinko’s, a copying and business service center.

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