By Moses Leos III.
It’s a matter of sticking to city code, or the possibility of setting precedence for the Buda City Council.
At odds is an appeal by a Buda Church, whose request to erect a sign in violation of city code was denied in December. Their appeal was brought to council on Jan. 7, but was tabled, with council citing more information was needed for a decision.
At the Dec. 10 council meeting, Faith Builders Worship Center approached the Buda Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Sign Review Board (SRB), to grant a variance on Buda Unified Development Code Table 10.2 and 10.3, which restricts the height and spacing of a freestanding sign.
According to city code, the maximum amount of signage on a property cannot exceed 400 square feet; signs also cannot be less than 200 feet from one another.
Faith Builder’s new sign, if granted, would increase the total onsite signage to 477 square feet (s.f.). Their sign would be 42 feet high, and would break the 200 foot buffer between frontage road signs.
At the center of the issue, however, is the location for this particular request. A sign within 200 feet of Interstate 35 cannot exceed 25 feet in width, according to city code. The church is located at the 17000 block of the IH-35 frontage road.
Church leaders returned to council Jan. 7 to appeal the Dec. decision.
However, fairness and safety concerns forced council to table the discussion for a future date, leaving both sides ready for another showdown in February.
Dan Machiela, construction manager with Christopher Commercial, and a parishioner at Faith Builders, said the rationale is to increase the church’s visibility.
It sits adjacent to a tile store and Machiela believes the existing freestanding sign is not tall enough to see while going north on IH-35. In his appeal letter to the SRB, he stated the Robert S. Light overpass blocks the view of the sign.
The center also claimed their new sign was consistent with those along the IH–35 corridor.
He also wanted to separate other businesses from the church.
“We’d like to have [the signs] separate, to keep retail and church different,” Machiela said. “If you add another sign [to the existing structure], it wouldn’t look right.”
Machiela also argued it would be cheaper to build a new sign, than to add on to the existing structure.
He said the church is still calculating the total cost of the new sign.
Buda SRB denied variances for maximum height and spacing, but agreed to increase the maximum signage to 500 s.f.
The committee cited a lack of adequate criteria, which included that the proposed height would not alleviate visibility issues. They also said that larger signs in the area were grandfathered in under older city codes. SRB upheld its 200-foot spacing measure, citing a lack of room on the frontage.
But most of all, the decision to deny was to avoid sign clutter, an important consideration for Mayor Todd Ruge.
“As we expand to the south on IH 35, we just want to be sure things look nice and tidy,” Ruge said in a phone interview.
However, Faith Builders fought back, saying the current signpost is insufficient to support additional signage. The only way to alleviate it would be to construct a new support pole.
Chance Sparks, director of planning, denied that claim, citing the pole’s age, which is roughly two years.
But the sticking point for council was Faith Builder’s location, now and in the future.
The Worship Center plans to move next to the Trails at Buda Apartment complex on Robert S. Light Blvd.
That struck a chord with council members who felt the new structure could become an off-premise sign, i.e., a billboard, which goes against city restrictions.
“We were really looking into [that] fact,” Ruge said. “We’ll try to figure out if that’s best for city.”
The concern, according to the city’s staff report, is granting precedence, along with undermining the SRB’s ruling.
Sparks said the city is still in the process of evaluating Faith Builder’s appeal. Ruge says more information is needed before a decision is made.
Machiela now awaits city council’s final verdict.
“We’re still waiting to see what happens,” he said. “We’ll just leave it in the Lord’s hands.”
