75-foot freeway sign looks like digital billboard

May 2—The developer of a partially built mixed-use commercial center at Power Road and the San Tan Loop 202 freeway wants approval of a 75-foot freeway landmark that appears to be more of a digital billboard.

Vivo Partners, developer of Gallery Park, said wants the landmark visible to drivers on the Loop 202 to the north of its project.

The company's application includes several deviations from Mesa's freeway landmark design guidelines, making it act more like a digital billboard than a typical freeway monument.

Digital billboards were totally banned within Mesa city limits until a recent change in city code allowed them only at Fiesta Mall and Mesa Community College.

The city's sign code was changed in 2004 to allow landowners adjacent to highways to erect freeway landmarks visible to drivers on the Loop 202 and US 60.

Mesa city code includes numerous rules and regulations guiding design of the sometimes very tall structures. Dana Park and Superstition Springs are some of the monuments that have been built.

Gallery Park is not one of the parcels eligible for a digital billboard, but its two-sided freeway monument would have similar attributes of a digital billboard — thanks in part to an array of requested deviations from current freeway landmark guidelines.

Gallery Park's freeway landmark has conventional features — such as replaceable tenant panels and the name of the development — but the design also includes a 280-square-foot "electronic message center" on each side that could change images every 8 seconds.

It's a significant deviation from current freeway landmark design guidelines, which prohibit digital displays from changing faster than once per hour.

The 8-second flip rate is common in the digital billboard industry. One benefit is it allows multiple advertisers to use the same space.

Media buying firm True Impact wrote in a blog post that "digital billboards' 8-second intervals on a 64-second loop might be the ideal format for delivering a concise message. It will draw attention without giving the observer a chance to turn away."

Whereas current freeway landmark guidelines allow only text messages on digital displays in Mesa, Vivo is seeking static graphics as well as text.

A city planner told Mesa's Design Review Board earlier this month that the current freeway landmark standards "were approved in the early 2000s, so they are a bit outdated. I don't know at the time they really contemplated an electronic display for a sign of that size."

Mesa's freeway monument code also requires the destination name to take up at least 20% of the monument area; Gallery Park's proposal shrinks the destination name to 9%, making the digital screen more prominent.

The Design Review Board and Planning and Zoning Board gave their blessings to the modifications this month, but the plan must still pass muster with the city council.

A key difference between freeway landmarks and billboards in city code is off-site advertising, or advertisements for enterprises beyond the sign's location.

Vivo inquired about bridging this last distinction before the Design Review Board meeting this month, with Vivo's Jose Pombo asking the Mesa city planner assigned to his application about off-site advertising.

A public records request from the Tribune revealed an email from Pombo inquiring about "our ability to advertise 'off-site' users such as ASU or the airport on our electronic message display that is part of the freeway monument."

A senior city planner replied that off-site advertising is prohibited in all zones except those that receive a "billboard overlay district," part of the update in the city's billboard ordinance.

One requirement for a billboard overlay is a parcel of 50 acres or more, which Gallery Park misses at roughly 42 acres. It is also short on the required length of freeway frontage.

Without a billboard overlay, Galley Park's digital display would only be able to advertise the commercial center or shops in the mixed-use development.

Gallery Park launched to some fanfare in 2019, but the bulk of the project has been slow to materialize. About 10 acres along Power Road have been developed so far. Current businesses include Black Rifle Coffee, Panera Bread and Spencer's TV & Appliances.

The crown jewel of the Gallery Park plan — a walkable shopping plaza in the interior of the roughly 50-acre development — is still a bare lot. Last year, Pombo told the Tribune the shopping plaza was still moving forward.

The design review board and planning and zoning board didn't raise objections to the variances requested, including the 8-second change rate for the digital display.

Several members of the design board praised the overall appearance, calling it "contemporary, nicely detailed," and "a good modern approach. Really simple"

Working in favor of Gallery Park's request for a billboard-like freeway monument is the site's designation as an Urban Center in the Mesa General Plan. Urban Centers are supposed to be "compact, mixed-use areas where many people live, work and play."