Master signage programs provide latitude to develop appropriate signage designs for new or existing areas with special unifying features. Master signage programs require approval by the City Council following review and recommendation by the Claremont Planning Board.
1. Planned development flexibility option: For the purpose of providing flexibility and incentives for coordinated, well-designed sign systems for large-scale development, special provisions varying the standards of this ordinance may be approved by the City Council. The planned development flexibility option is initiated by the developer by submission of a master sign program to the City Planner, who shall first place the request on the agenda of the Planning Board for a recommendation, and then on the agenda of the City Council for approval, subject to the following:
a. The development is: a planned residential, nonresidential, or mixed use development, ten (10) acres or greater in size; a hospital or other large scale institutional complex; a large scale cultural, civic or recreational facility; or a similar large scale development.
b. A master sign program that includes the following information in booklet form is submitted:
1. Detailed designs of all proposed signs including the size, height, copy, materials, and colors of such signs.
2. Proposed number and location of signs.
3. Sign illumination plans.
4. Plans for landscaping or architectural features to be used in conjunction with such plans.
c. The proposed signs meet the following criteria:
1. All signs are coordinated in terms of design features.
2. The maximum size of detached signs is not increased by more than twenty-five percent (25%).
3. The number of detached signs along a street frontage does not exceed three (3).
4. The maximum height of a detached sign does not exceed twelve (12) feet.
5. Multi-information directional signs are no greater than sixteen (16) square feet and are located in the interior of a development.
6. Changeable copy highlighting special events on signs for cultural, civic, or recreational facilities shall not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the sign face area of a sign. (Ord. of 12-7-04, No. 37-02)