Taco Bell wanted purple cove lights to set a branded mood outside its eatery in Wellington’s Village Green Center off State Road 7.
Hold the purple rain of glowing photons, the village’s Architectural Review Board decided Monday, Oct. 28. Keep any cove lighting white, members decreed by a 4-1 vote.
Welcome to the latest clash in the village’s time-honored struggle with retail establishments over sign sizes, colors and other attractions.
“I know the big discussion is going to be the cove lighting around the top,” said Jennifer Ronneburger, representing Taco Bell in its efforts to win local regulatory approval. The applicant in this instance was Kimco Realty Op LLC.
The village classifies some forms of specialized or colored lighting as if they were signage. If this were “copy,” or words, that’s one thing, Ronneburger said. “This is an architectural feature that’s going to be beautiful,” she explained.
All the other structures in the plaza have white lighting, Board Member Sal Van Casteren noted.
“All the purple would just not be consistent,” he said, warning of “circus” lighting if neighboring establishments get an OK for any color they want.
Board Member John Greene agreed. “The purple lighting is a hard no for me,” he said.
Taco Bell also requested updates to various wall and monument signs, which were granted, but the board followed a staff recommendation not to allow the purple cove lighting, 4-1, with Board Member Ryan Mishkin dissenting, and board members Maria Raspanti and Maria Wolfe absent.
Also on the agenda, the board unanimously approved architectural details for the planned Kids R Kids daycare center, a two-story building serving up to 210 children in the Lotis Wellington development on the west side of SR 7, north of Forest Hill Blvd.
The plan mostly featured signs, colors and elevations within standard limits, though an eastern wall sign facing SR 7 would be shaped like a bronze orb at more than triple the normal 30-inch height allowed. “This is the Kids R Kids medallion,” said Rich Kasser, director of entitlements at Lotis Group. “It is their brand-specific sign that is on all of their buildings.”
The overall 120-acre Lotis Wellington project won council approval in January for 372 residential units from single-family homes to one-bedroom apartments. The project also features restaurants including Lazy Dog and Cooper’s Hawk, PopStroke mini-golf, stores, offices and park areas. Along the way, the daycare center moved from the southern Lotis 1 portion of the project to the northern Lotis 2 area.
In other business:
- The board unanimously approved a flat roof on more than 40 percent of a proposed single-family residence near a barn and equestrian amenities on Fairlane Court in the Mallet Hill neighborhood. The existing house is being demolished and rebuilt. Applicants sought the flat roof as part of an overall Portuguese-inspired architectural look with a courtyard and varied roof configurations connecting spaces with angled roofs.
- Hanging wooden retail signs would be phased out within about a year at the Town Square shopping plaza at 11924 W. Forest Hill Blvd. under a proposal approved unanimously by the board. People can touch the signs, they swing in the wind, can be hard to see at night and are subject to rot, according to the argument for their elimination.
It is part of a broader overhaul at the Publix-anchored center built in 1982. The new look emphasizes backlit wall signs, along with refurbished awnings featuring colors including a Sunbrella Marine Blue.
Approval came with conditions based on the applicant’s submittal of color tweaks in certain exterior spaces, with a softer dove-white replacing a brighter hue, and a beige replacing a gray.
- The board voted 5-0 to paint roof tiles in an earthy terra cotta color at the Courtyard Shops plaza at 13880 Wellington Trace, where Publix is about to re-open a rebuilt and expanded anchor store. Some tiles were painted gray in an episode of confusion about what color had been approved, officials said.
