Key Points
- A new Hunt Highway shopping center wants two 10-foot lighted monument signs.
- The town’s new code caps them at eight feet.
- Home Depot and WinCo signs nearby top 20 feet under old county rules.
- The town says a change in the law means no vote. One administrator decides.
- The new process is faster: this particular case reached review six days after the applicant’s letter.
- Commissioners backed the taller height, citing Hunt Highway speeds and business visibility.
- The chair wants the sign code revisited “sooner than later” as larger commercial areas open.
- Dutch Bros and Busy Bees are the first of up to six businesses going in.
SAN TAN VALLEY, AZ — Drivers on Hunt Highway near San Tan Heights could soon pass two 10-foot lighted monument signs at a new shopping corner. The San Tan Heights sign plan went before the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday, Aug. 24. It would identify the center at Hunt Highway and Village Lane, where drive-thru coffee shop Dutch Bros and the Busy Bees daycare are preparing to open. However, the proposal stands two feet taller than the town’s new code allows. Meanwhile, the Home Depot and WinCo signs just down Hunt Highway rise more than 20 feet under earlier county approvals.
No vote followed the presentation, and none will. Instead, Community Development Director Gilbert Olgin will decide the case himself. A change in the law moved these approvals from public hearings and commission votes to town staff, he said. He added he “wanted to fast track this case” because the first tenants are “trying to get to open here pretty soon.”
Inside the Hunt Highway Sign Plan: 10 Feet Where the Code Says Eight
ES&A Signs and Awnings filed the request for property owner Hunt Highway Partners, LLC. It proposes two lighted monument signs: one along Hunt Highway and one on Village Lane, the smaller street on the center’s east side. Each sign stands 10 feet tall and about 6½ feet wide, according to the applicant’s cover letter and sign matrix. Its gray face carries white tenant panels, a faint “San Tan Heights” watermark and the center’s Hunt Highway street number, 2515. Olgin judged the monuments “well done” and “modern” compared with others around town.
Town code caps signs like these at eight feet tall and 48 square feet in area. The applicant says the design follows every rule except one: height. However, the town’s sign plan process comes with built-in flexibility: a request can top the height limit by up to 25 percent before it needs “specific justification,” the applicant’s letter argues. Ten feet lands exactly 25 percent above eight. Clearing that bar doesn’t guarantee approval, though — the height is still Olgin’s call. “They’re going to follow code on every angle, every aspect of the case,” Olgin told commissioners. “The issue is they’re asking for 10 feet.”
Olgin also pointed to digital signage as a benefit of the town’s code generally, because “some of the other codes don’t recognize digital signage, but we do.” Businesses can change prices “from a touch of a button,” he added. The menus in this package, however, are lighted boxes holding panels that swap out by hand, not screens, according to the signs’ specifications.
Dutch Bros and Busy Bees Lead a Six-Tenant Lineup
The center sits at 2515 Hunt Highway, on the southwest corner at Village Lane. Just down the highway to the southeast sits the Home Depot, WinCo and Walmart cluster. Six businesses could eventually fill the site, Olgin said. For now, only two are named. “The two that are going right now that we’re aware of are Busy Bees and Dutch Bros,” Olgin said. “That’s the only ones I know of now.”
The remaining lots sit under development with no building designs yet. Meanwhile, the signs on and around the Dutch Bros building are already permitted. Those approvals came under the old county rules, before the town’s sign code took effect July 1, the package states. The applicant has been told they will be honored. Busy Bees’ wall sign meets the current code without exception, the letter adds.
Commissioners Say Hunt Highway Speeds Demand Bigger Signs
Commissioner Paul Bond Jr. spoke from experience as a former business owner. He was once required to have a sign so small nobody could see it, he said. “Business actually went under, and just because people didn’t know I was there.” “Frankly, a big, tall Home Depot sign does not bother me,” Bond said. “It’s not about looks. It’s about attracting business.” He asked the town to think of owners, because “we want them to make money, because that means that we as a town are making money.”
Chair Karen Mooney agreed and backed the 10-foot height. “I honestly think 10 foot for this location is what should be considered,” she said. Drivers travel well above Hunt Highway’s posted speed, she added, so small signs get missed. Consequently, she urged the council and staff to revisit the sign code “sooner than later.” Sign size should depend on the location, she suggested. This center is a small commercial area, while a much larger one will open between Mountain Vista and Thompson. “Maybe consider a larger sign at that point,” she said. She also urged Olgin to “look at the road that it’s on” when reviewing neighboring communities’ signs: “Is that sign on Ellsworth, or is it on a much slower side street?”
County-Era Approvals Put 20-Foot Signs Next Door
Commissioner Donna Hallman asked whether Home Depot and WinCo were approved under the Pinal County sign code, and Olgin confirmed they were. Back then, he said, the county board “could approve essentially anything,” with “no guardrails of any kind.” As a result, anchor stores negotiated signs up to 22 feet so shoppers could spot them “from way back off the main street of Hunt Highway.” The town’s rules now run “a little more stringent,” he said. Even so, he said he intends to be fair rather than rigid, since nearby projects approved just months ago carry much taller signs.
One Administrator Decides the San Tan Heights Sign Plan
The session carried no motion by design. “We’re required to bring them in, share them with the commission, but there’s no vote to be made today. This will be essentially a work session,” Olgin said. “The ultimate decision is made by the zoning administrator, which is me.” The commission still sees each plan because the town’s own ordinance, Section 4.4.15, requires it.
He did not cite the specific law behind the change. However, he described it as one that took away planning commissions’ power “to review and approve site plans, plats, and these plans as well.” One recent statute matches much of that, though it is silent on sign plans. House Bill 2447, signed into law in March 2025, covers site plans, plats and similar land development applications. It requires cities and towns to have staff review and approve those items without a public hearing. Casa Grande, for example, reworked its subdivision code to comply last fall. Before that, those applications needed planning commission review and a council vote.
A Faster Track for Sign Plans
The shift to staff review makes approvals faster, Olgin said. Under the county, a similar application could sit three months before a decision, he added. By contrast, “this case was literally given to us Monday, and now you’re all seeing it now.” The applicant’s letter carries an Aug. 18 date, six days before the session. The word is out, he said: “There’s another couple companies that want to bring their signs. They just want to get it done within a month.”
Hallman told Olgin she fully supports staff deciding this case. However, she asked whether the town will handle all future applications this way, since a lot of commercial development is coming. The county’s old standards were “really difficult” to get through, she added from experience. Later, she asked where a denied applicant turns, since these cases don’t go to the council. The town’s zoning code, in Section 6.2.10, says appeals of a zoning administrator’s decision go to the Board of Adjustment and must be filed within 15 calendar days — a path officials at the session said they would confirm. Still, Olgin stressed that his discretion has limits, and past them, “I have to provide a statement as to why I did it.”
Nonetheless, commissioners can speak their minds during these sessions, Olgin said: “You’re allowed to tell me here in this setting that you don’t like it.”
Neighboring Codes Will Shape the Final Call
Before ruling, Olgin outlined his review. He will look at “what the code allows me to do” and at “what is being done currently within that part of Hunt Highway,” he said. Next, he plans to compare nearby cities: “My first thing I’ll be doing is reviewing what Queen Creek, Chandler, Gilbert do.” Some of the town’s current sign language came from those codes, he added. He announced no decision date. Once he signs off on the San Tan Heights sign plan, the two monuments would still need town permits before they go up. After that, the document can be amended as future tenants claim the open panels.
Case No. STV-ZSA0012-26
