LED message sign OK’d for Carson City Community Center

A new LED sign allowing multiple messages to be displayed at Carson City’s Community Center won approval from the Planning Commission.

Commissioners decided unanimously Wednesday to add language prohibiting banners on the sign and gave their stamp of approval to a special-use permit requested by the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, which oversees center operations.

The 156-square-foot sign, which could be 20 feet high instead of the existing sign level of 16 feet, is envisioned to be a changeable and modern message-display device in the same location on East William Street as the current sign. The existing sign must be altered manually to promote community center events.

The approval was for a conceptual plan. City Planner Lee Plemel said sign companies will submit proposals, and a specific plan will be returned later to the commission for further action.

Commissioner Paul Esswein suggested banning any banners. That was incorporated into the motion approving the concept after Parks and Recreation Director Roger Moellendorf and others said they didn’t oppose that idea. Ronni Hannaman, Chamber of Commerce director, agreed that banners aren’t needed as she testified in support of the LED sign.

“We think it is a wonderful thing well past time,” she said of the change. “Let’s not junk it up.”

The commission, which advises the Board of Supervisors on city planning matters, also approved a variance for Renown Health Systems, under the name of Renown Hospital, to allow just 42 parking spaces in a lot at medical offices for a 10,000-square-foot building at 3461 GS Richards Blvd. Normal planning restrictions would require 50 spaces.

The commission and staff, along with a Renown spokesman, said 13 additional spaces nearby on the large roundabout drive could ease parking pressures there.

In addition, the commission approved nine special-use permits to allow another five years for existing billboards and adopted a resolution commending Jennifer Pruitt, who took a job elsewhere, for 15 years of service with the Planning Division.