Sports Authority withdraws proposal for flashy signs on Broncos' stadium
A controversial plan to place large signs on the iconic steel band that wraps around the Denver Broncos stadium was pulled after more than three hours of public comment at a marathon Denver planning board meeting Monday night.
Officials from Sports Authority toward the end of the meeting agreed not to place red-lettered 9 ½-foot-tall and 178-foot-long signs on the east, north and west sides of the upper ring of the 11-year-old stadium. Riled-up neighbors had complained they would be too bright.
The board and Sports Authority did agree to go ahead with an illuminated roof-line ring that wraps around the top of the stadium and can be lit up during events.
The decision now goes to the city's zoning administrator.
A crowd of neighbors, who stayed throughout the six-hour meeting, applauded the board's unanimous decision.
Neighbors had been worried about the potential impact that the light from the signs would have on their homes and what they said would be a garish display on a taxpayer-funded stadium that had been carefully designed more than a decade ago.
"We strongly oppose the proposal on grounds that it would inflict egregious visual pollution on the citizens of Denver," said Walter Friedenberg, speaking for a downtown Denver neighborhood group. "To put large illuminated signs on the crowning band would sully that iconic structure and constitute corporate graffiti."
Others supported the move, lauding the Englewood-based Sports Authority sporting goods company that over the summer bought the naming rights for $150 million.
Broncos President Joe Ellis said he and team owner Pat Bowlen support the signs. "We think this brings life to the building," said Ellis.
City staff studied the proposal, finding it was acceptable under city code and zoning rules, and recommended its approval.
The planning board's approval is one step in the process. The matter next goes to the zoning administrator, who has the final say.
Four city council members have asked the planning board to reject the proposal, citing the opposition from numerous neighborhood groups. Sports Authority officials say they have responded to the community's concerns — holding 25 meetings with neighbors, agreeing to limit when the signs are illuminated and conducting lighting studies that they say show a "negligible" impact.
Designer John Dohner, from Monigle Associates Inc., which created the signs, explained that the lighting studies found the glare at the stadium's property line would be the equivalent of a single candle from 50 feet away.
Later in the public hearing, Rafael Espinoza, who lives near the stadium and opposes the sign, attempted to debunk the lighting studies. He pointed a flashlight at another man's back and asked him to walk away.
"You will see how that (light) decreases and diminishes," he said before pointing the flashlight at the board members.
"This is glare. Can everyone see the light from my flashlight? The photometric study measures what is falling on his back, not what is going into your eye. The whole purpose of signage is to be seen. To parse it out and say it is immeasurable is absurd."
(source Denver Post)
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