Things are Peachy for Apricot Lane

The Design Review Commission romped through much of its agenda on December 20, 2022 with little discussion and few comments. The sign packages were ‘by the book’ and approvals were a matter of course.

A case in point was Apricot Lane boutique, located at 342 East Central Street. The business has been open for several weeks but did not yet have its full signage in place.

The presentation noted the company’s color palette and the Commission was pleased that dimensions and lighting conformed to regulations. So, in short order the commission unanimously approved signs for the pylon near East Central Street, and on the building itself.

Next up was Skin Savvy Aesthetics at 9 Summer Street. In this instance, the applicant was replacing signage that they already had at the location. What was proposed was a combination of locational sign as well as directions to parking at the rear. With little discussion, the Commission approved the sign package as submitted.

Next up was Dell Technologies. Here, matters did not go as the applicant had hoped. Basically, the corporation is implementing new logos, eliminating the circle with the word DELL in the middle and replacing it with Dell Technologies, spelled out on a single line. The company proposed removing their old round sign and adding relatively large letters to the side of the building, amounting to something like 200 square feet by the rough estimate of the commission, far larger than what is allowed under the sign bylaw. The Dell representative argued, logically, that on such a large building (700,000 square feet) a small sign with conforming letters would look ludicrously small and would even be hard to discern amongst the large features of the industrial park.

The Commission was not unsympathetic, but couldn’t find a way to square the circle, so to speak. It was noted that Dell could conceivably get something through the Zoning Board of Appeals but, as submitted, the Commission couldn’t approve it.

So, rather than having the Commission reject it – closing off an avenue forward – Dell suggested tabling the matter until January, to give them time to consider options or perhaps come up with a conforming proposal.

This, the Commission agreed to.

The final matter before the commission was sign designs proposed for Dunkin, at 541 West Central Street. This matter had been tabled at the prior meeting due to being non-compliant. At that time, the commission had made  suggestions for a redraw. The Dec. 20 submission incorporated those suggestions and met with the Commission’s approval.