EVERETT — Providence Regional Medical Center Everett is asking the city to allow it to put up three signs on the new hospital tower that are more than double the size allowed.
The proposed signs would feature a version of the hospital’s logo: a 93-foot backlit, blue cross above the 38-foot-long word “Providence.”
The signs are appropriately scaled for the new tower, and since they would be placed 150 feet above street level, they would appear far smaller from the ground, said Patty DeGroodt, chief strategic officer.
The signs proposed are consistent with signs of comparable medical institutions in the area, she said.
They’re also a crucial way-finding device for people unfamiliar with the area who are searching for the hospital in an emergency, she said.
The matter went in front of the Everett Planning Commission on Tuesday night.
The commission agreed to recommend the hospital’s proposal with a few modifications, including adding a specific description of the proposed signs so that the final product wouldn’t end up radically different. The city’s ordinances otherwise limit signs to 60 square feet.
The matter will eventually make its way to the City Council next month for a final decision.
Several neighbors on Tuesday explained their concerns, including that the signs were more “advertising sign” than way-finding devices and that it would adversely affect the character of the surrounding residential neighborhood.
Annie Lyman, who lives in the Northwest Neighborhood, said she was concerned that after many meetings and public comments about the project, she was only now hearing about putting large commercial signs up on the building.
When the hospital put together an initial plan for the tower several years ago, they didn’t know they would need larger signs than what’s required because the tower hadn’t been designed, DeGroodt said in a phone interview.
The hospital uses the same signs in other communities and they appear to be working fine in those cities, she said.
At the meeting, Michelle Sosin, a planning commissioner, commended the hospital for a “more sensitive approach.” Then she said the proposed signs appear to be more of an advertisement or logo. She wondered if there were plans in place to improve signs at the street level.
There is, said Mike Gaffney, Providence’s director of hospitality and real estate. The hospital is working with the city and the state to put up signs on I-5 and city streets.
The city has OK’d larger signs than city sign guidelines permit — Boeing’s sign, for example — but these signs generally are in commercial and industrial areas, not near residential neighborhoods, said Dave Tyler, who works for the city’s planning department.
Providence’s Pacific Campus, located in the Port Gardner Neighborhood, has larger signs than those spelled out in city guidelines. The city approved those through an administrative review.
Providence showed examples of the proposed signs to neighbors at two meetings in March.
Shelley Weyer, the Northwest Neighborhood chairwoman, said people had questions about the size and brightness of the sign at the meeting she attended, but overall most neighbors didn’t seem too concerned.
People at the meeting seemed more unhappy about hospital parking spilling into surrounding streets, she said.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com
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