Riverside trustees selected this set of designs for gateway signage where Harlem Avenue meets Longcommon Road and East Burlington Street. They agreed to stick with the gateway pole signs rather than the bulkier monument sign. | Provided by the Village of Riverside Credit: Courtesy of the Village of Riverside 
Trustees did not discuss this first potential set of designs in detail before settling on the second set of designs. | Provided by the Village of Riverside 
The village board was quick to eliminate this third set of designs from the discussion. | Provided by the Village of Riverside
After soliciting feedback from four village commissions on potential designs for gateway signage, Riverside trustees agreed to proceed with a set of asymmetrical pole sign designs featuring aspects of the village’s logo that have been installed elsewhere in town.
At the board’s Oct. 17 meeting, Village Planner Anne Cyran asked trustees to review three sets of designs for potential signs that, once installed, officials hope will advertise the village to drivers on Harlem Avenue. All three sets of designs were created by Point B Communications, a Chicago-based design and marketing firm, when Riverside first considered a wayfinding sign plan in 2018.
“Point B provided this to us because they didn’t want to provide a quote to do additional signs if they had something the board appreciated more so from the initial branding and design campaign that they had done previously,” Village Manager Jessica Frances said.
Village President Doug Pollock, the only current board member who was on the board in 2018, explained that Riverside had partially implemented the plan with signs downtown and near Riverside Brookfield High School after receiving feedback then from village commissions.
Each set of designs included a gateway monument sign, a gateway pole sign, a parking sign and a directional sign. The monument signs are larger, made of stone and brick and would sit on the ground. The other three kinds of signs would be attached to poles. The third set also included a vertical gateway sign that would stand on its own.
The second design, featuring signs offset to one side of the pole with a decorated branch reminiscent of Riverside’s logo, has already been used for signs on Ridgewood Road.
“My summary of what I think I read and heard from all the committees and commissions [this year] was, it needs to be simple, subtle background signage, not prominent like the Water Tower masonry sign,” Pollock said.
In the course of their discussion, trustees quickly ruled out the third set of designs.
“I don’t like option three at all,” Trustee Jill Mateo said, so the rest of the board agreed not to consider it.
Pollock expressed his preference for the second set of designs and the pole gateway sign over a monument gateway sign, to which trustees Elizabeth Kos and Alex Gallegos said they agreed.
“I personally think that’s consistent with what our committees and commissions suggested. It’s simple. It’s background. It’s more about branding than it is directing traffic,” Pollock said. “I strongly favor that particular sign.”
While Mateo expressed interest in including a monument sign or “something with bulk,” Pollock made the case to keep the signage slim.
“My concern with the monument sign is they tend to be more intrusive. Every village has some kind of monument-type sign at their entryway, and we’re different, in my view. I think something subtle like this, to me, is a whole lot better than a large monument sign,” he said.
Kos agreed, pointing to the visually busy nature of Harlem Avenue and Longcommon Road, which trustees have raised as an issue in past sign discussions.
“There’s so much going on in that intersection already,” she said. “We can’t compete with everything that’s going on there, so maybe we shouldn’t try.”
She said it wouldn’t make sense for Riverside to spend money on a monument sign, which would likely cost more than a pole sign, if it won’t draw visitors.
The board did not discuss where the signs would go, but Riverside is still considering two potential locations: the strip mall at the intersection with Longcommon Road and the incoming Star Buds location along East Burlington Street. Riverside has agreements with the owners of the private parcels of land that would allow the village to install public signs on each one.
Should commissions always review signage?
Immediately before the board discussed gateway signs, trustees considered expanding the role of village commissions in reviewing village signage before it is installed, though they ultimately decided not to.
“The planning and zoning commission, the preservation commission and the landscape advisory commission recently expressed that they’d like to have a more formalized role in reviewing signs installed by the village,” Cyran said. “The village board can ask the commissions for feedback on village installed signs. They have, recently and notably on the gateway signs, but it’s not a power for those commissions listed in the municipal code.”
She asked trustees whether Riverside’s village code should be amended so any or all of these commissions must give feedback before the board approves signage. By the end of their discussion, trustees agreed that doing so could set a precedent that weakens the power of future boards.
The discussion seems to have been spurned, at least in part, by the installation of new park signs over the summer. According to agenda documents, some of the landscape advisory commissioners said at a July meeting they were disappointed they did not have a say on the signs before they were installed.
Trustee Cristin Evans said she would be comfortable with the board asking the commissions for feedback “on an individual basis” while Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga suggested automating the process.
“I think it would be advisable to have it as part of the code that it automatically goes, so we don’t have to remember on a case-by-case basis when these things come up,” she said. “Sometimes the discussions that we have are multi-pronged and multi-layered, and things do get lost in the process.”
Evans said she felt the park signs were a unique case, as they were driven by some public safety needs, and that she didn’t think trustees would need feedback from the commissions on every sign they consider. Trustee Megan Claucherty agreed.
“I think we typically do a very good job at involving our commissions, and I agree in this case, this is probably a lesson learned,” she said. “I don’t see a compelling need here to amend the village code for this purpose.”
“I would agree, and I would be concerned about setting a precedent of carving out areas where the village board has to go to commissions for doing things,” Kos said. “I feel like, especially when it’s public safety things, sometimes moving quickly is better and needs to happen. I think this is adding a layer of bureaucracy that, in a small town, doesn’t need to happen.”
