Buffalo Grove OKs advertising signs outside new subdivision

Buffalo Grove has given K Hovnanian Homes permission to install the advertising signs it requested at its Link Crossing subdivision - with the exception of MODEL NOW OPEN banners - though not before village trustees aimed a few barbs at the scope of the plan.

The signs are temporary and would promote the sale of townhouses and single-family homes in the subdivision near Buffalo Grove Road and Brandywyn Lane. A number of those displays require variations from the village's sign code, including those that would be in place for more than a year. One at the main entrance could be up for five years.

Trustee Joanne Johnson said she objected to banners that would have been twice as wide and three feet higher than village code allows.

"Putting a big banner on the back of a house just doesn't seem like it's going to appeal to people who live in this area," she said. "It just looks a little cheesy to me."

Greg Heinrich, vice president of construction for K Hovnanian Homes, said he is willing to remove the "model open" banners.

Trustee David Weidenfeld said he was stunned by the "staggering" number of signs planned.

"I find it astonishing that someone could be driving up (Buffalo Grove) Road and not know where this development is, unless they are completely impaired," he said.

"More is not necessarily better," Trustee Lester Ottenheimer III added, suggesting it would be more palatable and classy but still effective to have less signage. "However, I'm not a marketing expert in real estate and I don't pretend to be."

Heinrich said some of the signs will be up only for a year. Signs contain the name of the models, offer sales center information and assist with directions, "just to make sure people know where they go getting to the sales center and not driving through neighboring communities."