Bowen Health pulls varaince request for 5th sign as BZA struggles with request

A request before the Plymouth Board of Zoning Appeals for a variance to allow a fifth sign for the new Bowen Center facility at the corner of U.S. 30 and Pioneer Drive ran into issues Tuesday night.

The city’s current zoning ordinance allows four signs in a C-3 Corridor Commercial District.

The request, presented by The Baldus Company of Fort Wayne, adds one additional wall-mounted internally illuminated sign on the west façade, measuring 31’ wide and 3.4 feet tall.  The sign company said the additional sign allows the building to be recognized from all angles of approach.   

A monument sign will be installed at Pioneer Drive, with façade signs on the south, east, and north sides.

Hugh Baldus told BZA members, “We should have done our homework a little better with the city’ sign regulation.  We didn’t realize it was in place, and we’ve already wired that side of the building and have connection points established.”  When asked, he admitted that the sign was already built and ready to be installed.   

During the Public Hearing, Rich Hoffman, Facilities Director for the Bowen Center, spoke in favor of the request and said he purchased the sign for the new building.  He also said October 1 was the first day they were changing their name to Bowen Health.

BZA president Art Jacobs asked the applicant, Hugh Baldus, how he missed the city standard of four signs since they specialize in signs in northern Indiana. He said the number of signs was not brought to his attention by the city planning department in the fall of 2023.     

BZA member Fred Webster is the board’s representative on the Technical Review Committee and said the sign regulations are addressed during the meeting.  He suggested that communications were not reported to the Bowen Center by the company’s representative who attended the TRC.

BZA member Mark Gidley said the three façade signs are already installed, and they received a variance for the large monument sign because the size provides enough visibility for clients to find the building.  He did not believe a 31-foot by 3.4-foot fifth sign was needed and didn’t like that they had already built it.

A motion was made to approve the variance as presented by alternate member Linda Secor and seconded by Jacobs. With only four members present, the vote was 2 in favor and two against, so the request wasn’t approved.

After additional discussions with Planning Consultant Ralph Booker and City Attorney Jeff Houin, the Plymouth BZA eventually made a second motion to table the request in hopes that the entire board of 5 members would attend the November 6th meeting for consideration, and it unanimously passed.    

Hoffman said, “From Bowen Health’s perspective, we’ll take a sign down. The sign that faces Miller Drive, I’ll take it down, and we’ll replace the brick, and we’ll withdraw our applications.” He continued, “I think that is probably best for everybody. I think if we had known going in that we would have to have a variance for five signs, in fact, a week ago, the CEO and I had a conversation about pulling the sign.  He decided to go forward to see what happened.  Sensing what’s happening, we’ll just pull the one facing Miller Drive because we have the monument sign coming in.”