Home Depot: Only a 'manly' orange will do
By SCOTT MERZBACH Staff Writer
[ Originally published on:
HADLEY - Home Depot has rejected a request that it
tone down its trademark orange sign in favor of the town's preferred palette of
historic colors, saying those hues aren't ''manly'' enough.
In a discussion last week about signs
for the planned Route 9 store, Planning Board Chairman James Maksimoski told Home Depot representatives that clementine, an orange-ish color
used during the Victorian Era, is close enough to the home improvement store's
usual orange.
''The color palette and appearance should not be varied from the zoning
bylaw,'' Maksimoski argued before the Zoning Board of
Appeals.
But in the end, the zoning board decided the town - even armed with its new
sign regulations - couldn't force a company to change its logo. The board also
agreed to allow the retailer to use larger-than-usual signs, and to allow them
to be illuminated from inside.
Recent sign bylaw revisions require signs to be made from a wood or
wood-like substance, be externally illuminated and have colors selected from
the Historic Colors of America palette. This palette, created in conjunction
with Historic New England, offers a range of 149 colors used in the 18th and
19th centuries, including clementine.
Chris Gerard, a senior associate with Greenberg Farrow Architecture of
Boston, however, argued that the closest color on the
palette was not a close enough match and might dissuade men from shopping at
the store.
Ellen Freyman, a lawyer with the
On the size issue, Freyman told the zoning board
that the signs, which would total 375 square feet, are not excessive.
''It's adequate, it's suitable, it's not overly large,'' Freyman
said.
As a compromise, the store agreed to reduce the nearly 500-square-foot sign
attached to the building to 294 square feet, with the remaining signs totaling
an additional 81 square feet.
Maksimoski said he could understand the need to
have larger letters on the building so Home Depot's sign can be read from the
road. Home Depot is going to be built as part of the larger 323,00-square-foot Hadley Corner project at the corner of Route
9 and
Initially, zoning board Chairman John Kokoski said
he wasn't sure his board could make exceptions to the sign bylaw through
variances, and it might be best to protect the integrity of the recent
revisions.
''I think we should start somewhere, and I think we should start now,'' Kokoski said.
But Freyman convinced the zoning board that Home
Depot would be at a competitive disadvantage to other national retailers on
Route 9 that came before the sign bylaw changed.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.