Ernest Jette Courtesy photo/City of Nashua

NASHUA – The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear the city’s application for special exceptions to allow an electronic messaging sign to be erected at 840 West Hollis St., the site of the new Public Works Building, on Nov. 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the City Auditorium, 229 Main St.

The sign’s proposed location is in a residential zone and electronic messaging signs are not permitted in any residential zones. According to the application, the sign would be eight feet high where a maximum of six feet is allowed. The proposed sign would have an area of 20.9 square feet, where only 10 square feet is allowed. The sign will be three feet from the roadway when the law requires it to be 10 feet away. The electronic messaging center will take up 100 percent of the sign and contain unlimited text, symbols, graphics and images. Where electronic messaging signs are allowed, they are limited to 50 percent of the total area of the sign and three lines of text. Graphics and images are not permitted.

In 2012, the city purchased the land where the sign would be located. The resolution authorizing the purchase, R-12-020, provided that the city “shall not cause the properties to be developed …except in conformance with the city’s residential zoning regulations applicable to the neighborhood in which the properties are located.”

Last year, the Joint Committee on Infrastructure and Board of Public Works voted to seek a variance to allow the construction of the sign. However, Corporation Counsel Steven Bolton, issued an opinion that a variance would not be enough to avoid the bar created by the resolution authorizing the purchase. He said that although the variance would avoid the barriers imposed by the zoning ordinance, the proposed sign will still not be in conformity with the existing zoning regulations of the neighborhood as required by the resolution.

In May of this year, the Board of Aldermen passed O-23-051 amending the sign ordinance to permit the city to erect signs in every zoning district by special exception from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. To grant a special exception, the Zoning Board must find that the requested use will not impair the integrity or be out of character with the district or immediate neighborhood in which it is located.

“The city’s plan to build this oversized electronic message sign is totally out of character with this residential neighborhood,” said Ward 5 Alderman Ernest Jette. “It’s a violation of the city’s promise to the residents written in its own resolution. The Zoning Board should deny the special exceptions and the city should come back with a sign that conforms with the sign regulations for that neighborhood.”

Plans can be viewed online at www.nashuanh.gov. Residents can voice their comments or concerns at the meeting or can submit them via email to zba@nashuanh.gov or mail to Nashua Planning Department, P.O. Box 2019, Nashua, NH 03061 before 5 p.m. on Nov. 13. Residents are asked to include their names and addresses.