Reaction To Request By Church Not A Good Sign

By TOM BRENNAN The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 7, 2008

BRANDON - Officials with Bell Shoals Baptist Church are asking for a sign.

Not a burning bush or anything so biblical, but a 17.5-foot-tall, 11.5-foot-wide pole sign with an electronic message board in front of the church's new worship center.

"We want to get as much visibility as possible," said Rees Nickerson, a church member and construction project manager.

When church officials got approval to rezone 39 acres at the northwest corner of Bell Shoals and Brooker roads in 2004, they accepted a county-imposed restriction banning such signs. It was a ban routinely included in all such large rezonings.

Now, church officials are asking the county to rescind the prohibition.

At first, they went straight to county commissioners, who seemed willing to grant the request until a zoning administrator said the move could set a risky precedent and bog commissioners down in mundane debates about signs.

Commissioners were persuaded to let the church ask a county land use officer for a variance to zoning conditions, the normal route for such sign issues. A hearing on the issue will be at 9 a.m. Friday at the Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

The sign the church is asking for would be 9.5 feet tall and elevated 8 feet off the ground. Nickerson said church leaders would like to add architectural detail on top of the sign to mimic that of the new worship center.

An electronic message board would change periodically. Nickerson said the sign would be used to inform passers-by about church events.

"The community will be able to understand and know what we are doing and have opportunities to participate," he said.

The request is not sitting well with some neighbors.

"The little sign they have now shines in my living room and never goes off," said Bob Herkelman, who lives across from the church on Bell Shoals Road. "They're putting up a bigger one that's brighter. How will we sleep with all those lights?

"It is going to light up the whole neighborhood."

Herkelman worries that other churches, schools and businesses in the area also might seek such signs - a move, he said, that would destroy the residential character of the neighborhood.

"Everyone is going to say 'They did, I'm going to do it,'" he said.

Neighbor Joe Frazier said the sheer size of the 3,400-seat sanctuary and adjoining fellowship hall should be large enough to draw attention.

"You know that the huge new church speaks well for itself just by being there," he said in a letter to Commissioner Al Higginbotham. "I see no reason for razzle-dazzle signs.

"The area of Bell Shoals and Brooker roads is exclusively residential, and to have those signs blaring their messages at all hours, especially for the homes that face them, would be sight pollution, to say the least."

Nickerson said the church could have a 9.5-foot ground sign under current county codes. But, he said, elevating it would improve safety because the sign would be at the entrance of the driveway to the new center and its parking lot.

"Drivers wouldn't be able to see around it," he said of a ground sign.

Nickerson said the church is trying to be a good neighbor.

"We'll try to be as unobtrusive as possible," he said. "I want to believe any lights will not impact our neighbors."

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.