WEST LEBANON — A year-long dispute between ConvenientMD and city officials over the size and number of signs along Route 12A recently ended in a compromise the urgent care company says will facilitate its move to a new location in West Lebanon.
The Lebanon Zoning Board voted unanimously earlier this month to allow ConvenientMD to erect three signs on its proposed new home — the former D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches shop.
However, those signs will only make up a fraction of the 514 square feet the Plymouth, N.H.-company initially requested last year.
The company will instead be allowed 300 square feet with its largest sign, a 150-square-foot advertisement designed to stand out to passing motorists on Interstate 89, attached to a new “turret” that will be constructed at the entrance.
That approval was good enough for Nashua, N.H., attorney Morgan Hollis who negotiated on behalf of ConvenientMD throughout several meetings with the Zoning Board.
“It’s really important that the board understand that the 150 north facing is an absolute requirement for them,” he said during a Sept. 8 meeting. “Without it, they just don’t feel that they can proceed.”
ConvenientMD, which has 11 locations in New Hampshire, says it needs large signs to alert people to their locations. Many of its patients drive up to 40 minutes to access health care services and are often unfamiliar with the area, according to Hollis.
The company advertises itself as a step up from competing urgent care centers, saying its on-site staff can handle 70% of cases for which people visit a hospital emergency room, and at 11% of the cost.
But Zoning Board members who took up a variance request last year weren’t convinced the proposed health care facility needed signs that totaled more than five times what’s allowed in current regulations.
Under Lebanon’s zoning ordinance, a property is allowed to have 96 square feet of sign area but existing tenants already used up that allocation. Signs for Citizen’s Bank and AT&T, which are grandfathered, account for 278 square feet along the commercial property’s exterior.
During a meeting last October, Zoning Board Chairman William Koppenheffer called ConvenientMD’s request a “mockery” and challenged the company’s “reasonableness.”
“It boggles my mind to think what other merchants up and down 12A will say,” he said.
The company withdrew its request in November after facing continued resistance. But it reapplied early last month asking for 480 square feet of signage.
This time, officials argued the signs would make or break ConvenientMD’s move to Lebanon and submitted letters from health insurance companies, fire departments in southern New Hampshire and other nonprofit groups urging the city to grant the variance.
“ConvenientMD’s outreach and support of the local communities it serves is truly unprecedented, and they provide a tremendous service to the communities they serve,” wrote Paula MacKinnon, president of the New Hampshire School Nurses’ Association. “You would be fortunate to have them in Lebanon.”
Over three meetings, the Zoning Board and ConvenientMD worked to hammer out a settlement that would still provide visible signs that aren’t overly obtrusive, coming to a final deal Sept. 8.
Board member Paul McDonough said the compromise was not “offensive” to other merchants and would assure the urgent care center is “easily identifiable.”
Koppenheffer, although he voted to grant the variance, still wasn’t convinced.
“I think the importance of how big this signage had to be was way overblown. And if I had my druthers, the sign would be much smaller,” he said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.