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Kannapolis City Council members will consider this week whether to change the number of signs allowed at shopping centers in the city.
Under current rules, only one sign is allowed per center, although the single board may contain various logos. But plenty of centers are not in compliance with those rules.
“There's a conflict between keeping the city visually attractive and helping new businesses,” City Manager Mike Legg said.
Last week, the city's Planning and Zoning Commission recommended changing the city's unified development ordinance to allow the Board of Adjustment to make sign decisions on a case-by-case basis.
The planning board also recommended that after two years, the ordinance should revert to the current one sign per center, and all businesses would have to comply with that standard, said Kannapolis Assistant Planning Director Ben Warren.
He said planners want to help businesses in the short term by giving them the option to have their own sign for up to two years. But the board also wants to ensure that the shopping centers along city corridors comply with the local ordinance.
Warren acknowledged it is “somewhat contradictory” to have individual signs come down in two years in favor of one group sign.
Other options being presented to the City Council include not changing the ordinance or allowing each shopping center tenant to have its own sign.
The issue was first brought up by Councilman Richard Anderson.
He said he was upset to learn that a longtime bakery in town, Merita, was told it could not put up its own sign when it moved from one part of Kannapolis to a shopping center on South Cannon Boulevard.
“This was totally wrong,” he said, and it got him mad enough to want to do something about it.
This will be the first time the board discusses the issue. A public hearing is set for the Sept. 22 meeting.
Mixing science, ice cream
There's going to be a new way to cool off after a hot day of science at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis.
Bruster's Real Ice Cream is opening a walk-up stand next to the restaurant Forty Six at 103 West Ave., across from the $1.5billion campus, a biotech hub developed by billionaire Dole Food owner David Murdock in collaboration with at least eight N.C. universities.
Marcy and Greg Farr own the Bruster's at the Afton Ridge Shopping Center in Kannapolis. When they began hearing more details about the research campus, “We were just really intrigued by the research campus concept and wanted to be a part of it,” Marcy Farr said.
She said they hope to have the store open Sept. 17. It will employ 5-10 people.
The ice cream will be made at the Afton Ridge store and shipped to the West Avenue store. Although there's no indoor seating there, the Farrs will provide tables outside the stand for customers.
Based in Bridgewater, Pa., the Bruster's chain has more than 210 stores in the eastern United States, according to the company Web site.
