"Tighter" Cornerstone Market Basket Sign Approved

Barlo Signs spokesperson Tim Sullivan joked on Monday that if the new supermarket going into Cornerstone Square was called “Market Bag,” it would have been approved pretty quickly.

Still, the new Market Basket did finally get its sign request approved, if in a slightly different form that it had originally hoped.

After deliberation, the board approved a modified sign that would be six feet tall and have letters spaced more tightly together than the original request that was wider and shorter in height by two feet.

The sign was also smaller according to Sullivan, coming in at approximately 57 square feet, coming from an individual measurement of each letter.

Confusion arose among members of the board over this was the actual number or the square footage should be represented the extreme edges of the sign.

Westford town planner Chris Kluchman told the board she believed the original estimate was accurate due to the fact that these were cut out, or “channel” letters, and it would be unfair to measure space not being used in the sign itself.

Angus Jennings, the town’s director of land use management also added that if the board began treating channel letters like rectangular, or “box” signs, eventually future developers would feel forced to use box signs with all applications.

The board took into account that the new Market Basket is also set to become the largest commercial retail building in town and that the request was appropriate in scale.

“What’s being advanced here is not a radical idea,” said Planning Board member Dennis Galvin. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable.”

The measure was passed by a 4-1 margin, with Planning Board member Matt Lewin voting in opposition.