Weekly Publix progress report: CVS seeks additional sign

Before it opens the doors to its new Longboat Key store, CVS wants a sign — make that two.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear a request at its 9:30 a.m. Thursday, June 14 meeting from CVS for a variance from the town’s sign code. The drug store seeks to place an additional 32-square-foot sign on the southwest wall of its new store. The store already has a 32-square-foot wall sign permitted on its northwest side of the building. If allowed, the new sign would face Bay Isles Parkway.

In its application, CVS states that the required parking lot landscaping obscures site visibility from the southernmost entrance to the plaza, while customers will face the blank wall of the store entering at the northernmost entrance.

Town staff, however, has not found sufficient evidence to meet variance criteria set forth in town codes, according to a memorandum sent by Town Planner Steve Schield to zoning board members.

The current CVS has existed for more than 30 years without a second sign and is less visible from Gulf of Mexico Drive than the new store will be, according to the memo. Granting the variance could also result in other island businesses requesting variances for additional signs, the memo states.

Publix progress
A little rain can’t stop these construction workers.

The walls of the new Publix continued to rise up last week, despite bad weather that no doubt put a damper on construction. At the new CVS, contractors worked on the columns that surround the entranceway.

One Publix/CVS observer told the Longboat Observer that although contractors didn’t work on Memorial Day, they made up for it by working the next Saturday.