October Planning Board

The October 1 Marco Island Planning Board meeting had members reviewing a light agenda for their monthly meeting, while hearing from Daniel Smith, Director of Growth Management, regarding a more complicated matter come before them at the November 5 meeting.  

Smith provided members with a heads up regarding the assisted living facility which is proposed to be constructed on the property owned by Naples Community Hospital at the intersection of Bald Eagle Drive and San Marco Road. That project, which was approved by council earlier this year, will be coming forward with its petitions to subdivide that property and provide the Planning Board with a review of its Site Development Plan for the project.

That meeting will commence on Friday, November 5, at 9 am.

Mcdonald’s Seeks Changes to Sign Ordinance

McDonald’s earlier this year reconfigured its drive-thru operation and parking arrangement to accommodate a dual lane drive-thru here on the island. Its purpose was to accommodate a more efficient movement of motor vehicles through that drive-thru, therefore eliminating a back-up of traffic onto Collier Boulevard.

The drive-thru business surged over the last year, attributed in part to the COVID Pandemic. The usage of drive-through windows ranges between 50-70% of fast-food sales across their business models. The utilization of “dual-drive-through” lanes began increasing prior to the effects of the pandemic, and most experts do not see a significant change in those numbers. 

Sign technology also has made considerable advances with the use of “digital signage,” which allows operations such as fast-food restaurants to adopt more rapid and convenient changes to menus and special offerings for convenient and effective marketing to those opting for the drive-thru lanes.

As part of McDonald’s request to allow this style of signage, they also would be requesting the addition of what their representative, Kim Seyer of the Seyer Group from Sarasota, referred to as a secondary sign. She described it as a “pre-sale” sign placed just before the larger order board.

That would allow the store to give visitors an opportunity to view a “deal-of-the-day” type of offering prior to reaching the main order board, and speed the transaction time.

That caused Planning Board member Larry Honig to comment, “I can see how these things can help McDonald’s, but I can’t see how it helps the island.”

He was voicing his concern that the “pre-sale or deal-of-the-day boards” could possibly cause additional backup, especially if not placed appropriately in the line. Honig also had concerns regarding illumination of those message boards.

Board Member Dave Vergo also shared his concern over possible unintended consequences of the boards, but did not share Honig’s concerns regarding illumination of the boards.

Seyer attempted to explain that the placement of the signs would be just before the turn that would put vehicles into the cue to reach the order boards, therefore eliminating the concern of having them placed in a location that would cause a bottleneck of traffic. However, it was pointed out that the main goal was to acquire permission to get the 20-square-foot digital menu board.  

Board Chair Jason Bailey suggested the addition of a glossary to provide a more detailed description of what would be required of other applicants, should they have a drive-thru lane for their businesses.

Growth Management Director Smith said that, moving forward, he would want included the appropriate verbiage to prevent an impact to the surrounding area by any illumination. He explained to the board that Seyer wanted to be clear that the change to the “digital order board” was their main focus. Digital signage is not allowed under present city codes, but allowances could be made under those restrictions.

The board eventually approved the request by a 7-0 vote but did not approve the secondary sign.

Permanent Eyebrow Enhancements Allowed

It seems the island will soon allow state-of-the-art cosmetic tattooing of eyebrows. It is a process that will allow many women who have suffered the loss of their natural eyebrows due to medical treatments to have this alternative locally.

Many women have chosen to utilize the process, and those who apply it have special training. Body tattoos are permanent, as they utilize an ink which has bigger particles and cannot be cleared by the body.   

The Department of Health must license those doing permanent makeup within the State of Florida.

Tattoo parlors are not an allowed business, as such, on the island. Therefore, it requires the board’s approval for this specialty process.

The Planning Board will meet again the first Friday of November at 9 am in council chambers.