Gas station to be allowed to re-install sign

The Braselton Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance request on Thursday to Acree Oil Company — which supplies Shell fuel to Braselton Shell at 1975 Ga. Hwy. 211 — to once again place the sign at the busy intersection.
“The sign is what brings business in,” said Richard Caputi, Athens oil manager of Acree Oil.

Originally set at 35 feet high, the sign at the intersection was recently removed by the Georgia Department of Transportation to make way for widening the two state highways in the area.

The DOT gave Acree Oil $6,200 to compensate the company for moving the sign and its re-installation, but that doesn’t cover the estimated $15,000 it could cost to meet Braselton’s code requirements, the company contended in its application.

The pre-existing sign was grandfathered from the town’s revised sign codes, but re-installing it means that the company would have to meet the updated regulations.

Meanwhile, RaceTrac plans to open a convenience store across the street from Shell — which Caputi said will bring competition to the existing gas station.

RaceTrac will have two signs on its property — one 20-foot high sign in unincorporated Barrow County and one 12-foot high sign in the Braselton town limits, according to town planning director Kevin Keller.

Acree Oil wants to use the same sign that once stood at the Shell gas station — a two section sign that totals 16 feet in height.

However, the area where the sign will be placed is about four feet deep from the street level of Ga. Hwy. 124. The Braselton Zoning Board of Appeals discussed measuring the height of the sign from street level. That, in turn, would determine how high the supporting poles of the Shell sign would be for the total height of the sign.

Zoning board of appeals member Burgess Baird said the sign would sit too low in the intersection and it could block the view of motorists. He made a motion to have the sign’s maximum height at 26 feet above curb grade, a measure that could give an extra six inches to the sign than street grade measurement. That motion died for a lack of a second.

Member Gail White then made a motion to approve the staff recommendation of the Braselton Planning and Development Department, which suggested a maximum height of 20 feet. That motion unanimously passed with Baird, White and Charlie Patterson voting in favor.

Planning director Keller said the sign would be measured 20 feet above the street level on Ga. Hwy. 211.

Caputi said the reinstallation of the sign would be determined by the DOT. Utility lines are still in the process of being moved in the area.