Mariano’s sign request riles neighbors

Residents of one Arlington Heights icon, the Scarsdale neighborhood, are taking on a new icon in the village, Mariano’s Fresh Market.

It’s all about a sign.

Mariano’s is seeking a variance to install a second sign facing Northwest Highway on the west side of its building, which would be visible from homes across the street in Scarsdale.

Village ordinance allows only one wall sign per street, said Charles Witherington-Perkins, director of planning and community development for the village.

However, because Northwest Highway runs diagonally, signs on both the South and West sides of the grocery store would face that street.

The new sign would be similar to ones already on the store, and smaller than the main one that faces East, said Witherington-Perkins.

Things might not be so bad if the village required businesses to turn off their lights overnight and when they are closed — and if trees that die on public property were replaced in the same numbers to screen the street, says Jennifer Murphy Cazares, who with her husband, Jerry, is battling the sign.

Scarsdale, with about 550 homes, is south of Northwest Highway and east of Arlington Heights Road.

Julie Harper, president of the Scarsdale Property Owners Association, said residents not directly impacted by the sign support those like herself and the Cazares who are. If property values drop in one part of the neighborhood, that will affect the whole community, she said. She said the board has not polled residents.

“As far as I’m concerned (the sign is) too big,” said Harper. “They could do a much nicer job with a street-level sign. Residents of Scarsdale work really hard to keep our neighborhood really nice and friendly. We have activities, and people are proud of where they live.”

The issue will be before the Arlington Heights Design Commission on April 26. A variance also needs approval of the village board.

Confusion abounds because originally residents got a certified letter saying the sign would be internally lighted, which residents thought would be even more offensive.

The plan submitted to the village called for the sign on the side of the building to have “gooseneck” light shining on it, said Witherington-Perkins, but the sign company sent out an incorrect letter.

The address of village hall was also wrong, he said, making it necessary to postpone the hearing before the Design Commission.

In the meantime the Cazares have collected 250 signatures against the sign, mostly from neighborhoods around the downtown.

Harper and Jennifer Cazares, who is vice president of the association, both love Mariano’s, shop there and are pleased that the area looks much better than it did before.

The proposed sign could “junk it back up,” said Cazares, adding neighbors were told when the store was built there would not be a sign on the west face.

Mariano’s thinks the sign will make Northwest Highway safer by letting people know earlier exactly where the store is, said Vivian King, spokeswoman for Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc., owner of the store. Customers have told store staff they sometimes overshoot the building, she said.

The sign could make the street more dangerous, argue Harper and Cazares, because drivers from the west would see the sign long before they could turn left at a traffic light on Dryden to reach the store.