“It hurts the appearance of the district, so it hurts those businesses,” she said in a phone call with The Columbian.
Fourth Plain Forward is the effort to improve the Fourth Plain corridor and make it more appealing to residents, workers and visitors. Miller said the old sign is at odds with that vision; it clashes with a nearby futuristic-looking transit stop for The Vine, Vancouver’s bus rapid transit system.
Miller has learned more about the sign and its fate since submitting her question to Clark Asks. So, a lot of what I found out will be review for her.
For the rest of you, let’s start from the beginning:
• Fred Meyer vacated the site in 2008 when it opened its Grand Central store off state Highway 14 at Grand and Columbia House boulevards, just over a mile away. California-based S.J. Amoroso Properties Co. bought the old store for $4.7 million. Amoroso and PacLand, a frequent Walmart store developer, proposed to replace Fred Meyer with a smaller grocery store, and a second area would accommodate a future fast-food restaurant.
• At the time of the sale, Fred Meyer officials imposed a covenant that buyers would not develop grocery or pharmacy services on the old store site for a number of years. So, the store sat vacant until 2013, when it was demolished to make way for a Walmart Neighborhood Market. The sign, however, remained.
• Walmart Real Estate Business Trust owns most of the rectangular block bordered by Grand and Fourth Plain boulevards, East 20th Street and Fairmount Avenue. Oregon-based Vancouver Properties LLC owns a slice at the northeast corner, occupied by Aaron’s. The northwest corner is still owned by a subsidiary of Amoroso, called GJD Properties. (Yes, there are three different property owners on this single block.)
I called Gil Amoroso, who was listed on the California Secretary of State’s website as the agent for GJD Properties. He told me he has “no idea” why the sign is still there and isn’t really involved in the shopping center, but said he’d have someone call me about it.
In the meantime, city employees began filling in details. It appears Amoroso’s originally proposed second element, the fast-food restaurant, is coming to fruition.
Associate planner Sandy Wozny said in an email that a building permit was issued for that corner and Starbucks will be the tenant.
“They will be repurposing the existing sign,” she wrote. Her guess is that the sign will be improved by the end of summer.
But why leave the sign for all those years? Why not tear it down and put up a new sign?
One reason could be cost.
“Freestanding signs are very expensive and require engineering so they would not want to remove” what already exists as it can be repainted and refaced, Wozny wrote. “Unfortunately it is an eyesore until that happens.”
Another possible reason for leaving the sign is that it’s taller and bigger than what’s currently allowed under city code. Miller estimated the sign is about 100 feet tall. Being so tall, people traveling along the corridor will know well ahead of time that there’s a Starbucks ahead.
Greg Turner, land use planning manager with the city, said the sign was built before 1979, predating the sign code.
“Based on our current sign code, it wouldn’t be allowed,” he said.
In commercial districts freestanding signs can be a maximum of 25 feet tall, and the area they take up depends on the frontage space. By being grandfathered, Starbucks can take advantage of the sign’s existing size. (Fun fact: Rotating signs, rooftop signs and most flashing signs are prohibited in Vancouver, as are signs that “emit audible sound, odor or visible matter.”)
Typically, the coffee chain’s storefronts say Starbucks or Starbucks Coffee in white block letters, and somewhere the design incorporates the iconic twin-tailed mermaid or siren. How exactly Starbucks will use the old sign remains to be seen.
At one point, Fourth Plain Forward wondered if the sign could be used to signal the Fourth Plain district, also considered Vancouver’s international district. Andrea Pastor, associate economic development planner and Fourth Plain project manager, said she’d still love to have a district sign somewhere. There would be some community participation in creating the sign, which would look different from the Fourth Plain Forward logo.
For now, residents will continue to complain about the zombie sign in central Vancouver until a latte-serving siren answers their calls.
