HomeGoods Signs Weighed

Town code limits total sign area to 20 square feet at that location, but HomeGoods wants to exceed that by nearly 50 percent

Feb. 12, 2015

T.E. McMorrow

Representatives for HomeGoods received a chilly reception from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals last week as the board reviewed a request for signs on the new Wainscott building the store will occupy.

Town code limits total sign area to 20 square feet at that location, but HomeGoods wants to exceed that by nearly 50 percent, with a 14-square-foot sign on the back of the building by the parking lot and another one on the Montauk Highway side of the building.

The company already received approval from the town’s architectural review board for one 14-square-foot sign, but needs the additional sign because the building is so large, its attorney Patrick Fife of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, argued on Feb. 3. The shingled structure, which sits at the north edge of Montauk Highway, is 156 feet wide and 35 feet tall, he said.

Mr. Fife said the signs were not as large as was calculated by the town because the letters would have no background.

Cate Rogers, a board member, pointed out that the letters, while not self-illuminated, were being painted in a color called “neon red.” She also said that it appeared that the sign in back, as approved by the A.R.B., was to be lit by three lamps, whereas it appeared in the sketches before the Z.B.A. that five lamps were being used.

Then John Whelan, the board’s chairman, noticed that the sign in back was actually over a stucco surface, not a shingled one, making it a background for the letters, countering Mr. Fife’s proposed calculations on coverage involving free-standing letters.

Mr. Fife showed the board a series of large photos of signs elsewhere that he said appeared to be in excess of the code’s requirements, but many of these were in the village, not in the town. When he showed a photo of the sign outside East Hampton High School, followed by the one outside the East Hampton Town government complex on Pantigo Road, the board made a collective groan. “I don’t think Town Hall needs to go to the A.R.B.,” Mr. Whelan said.

“Has HomeGoods thought of making a smaller sign?” asked David Lys, another board member.

Adam Schleyer, a HomeGoods manager, told the board that the chain had six-foot-tall signs in towns like Riverhead and Patchogue.