Mired in confusion, Kent’s official design guidelines are in line for an overhaul.
Some two dozen Kent residents met July 6 with city leaders and consultants at the Kent Police Department’s Community Room to learn what residents want their downtown to look like and what they think design guidelines should accomplish.
On hand were Planning Services Manager Kristin Hopkins and Principal Planner Alisa Duffey Rogers, both of CT Consultants; Kent Community Development Director Bridget Susel, an array of interested council members, and Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala.
Attendees were presented with a number of posters, each one depicting downtown buildings and business signs. They answered a variety of questions: What buildings say “this is what I think of when I think of Kent?” What signs do I like? Where do I live, work, play?
Responses were anonymous and will be used to craft updated guidelines, Duffey Rogers said.
Kent’s design guidelines, which are enforced by the city’s Architectural Review Board, apply to the downtown area. The board is tasked with things like reviewing and approving signs, new construction details, and facade alterations.
But there’s one problem that has bedeviled the board, particularly in the last year as two controversies over business signage boiled up to the level of city council. The problem could be summed up in one question: What is art? Most of us know it when we see it, but defining it is elusive. And defining “good” art is impossible.
No matter how well CT Consultants updates the guidelines, they — and the ARB — will still be dealing with art, said custom home designer and former ARB member Kevin Koogle after the meeting. Good design is a matter of what looks good and what fits in with surrounding buildings.
“What will change [as a result of the guidelines]?” Koogle asked Hopkins. “It’s still going to be subjective.”
The way CT Consultants sees it, guidelines are conversation starters, Duffey Rogers explained. They rely on words like “should” and “may.” Standards are objective and are marked by words such as “will” and “shall.” Guidelines have no place in a city’s zoning code, where clearly phrased standards are critical.
When the two terms get mixed up, as has somehow happened in Kent, trouble is not far behind.
Most business owners have been able to negotiate their way through guidelines that got codified into law as standards; others battled the ARB, and two formally appealed to city council.
The first was Mike Beder, who owns Kent Sportswear. In August 2021, the ARB rejected his signage because of the colors: Kent State yellow and blue. The second was Valerie Landis of Garage 108, who wanted an internally lit sign. After the ARB said no, she appealed to city council and had the decision overturned.
After the Garage 108 case, city council hired CT Consultants, an Akron firm that specializes in engineering, architecture, planning and construction services. The firm’s mandate is to unravel challenges that business owners and the ARB alike face when determining what is acceptable in the downtown area.
For the past two weeks, company reps have been conducting small-group interviews with members of Kent’s Planning Commission, ARB members and applicants, and members of the city’s Committee on Design and Preservation.
Susel is looking ahead. Though it is far too early in the process to say which will be which, CT Consultants will ideally come up with both guidelines and standards, she said.
“Do we need both ‘shoulds’ and ‘shalls,’ and if we do, what’s a should and what’s a shall? Those are questions we have to answer,” Susel said.
Clearer language should make conversations between the ARB and business owners easier. One of CT Consultants’ goals is to phrase the guidelines clearly enough that applicants can understand them and know what the expectations are, Hopkins said.
“Anything that’s hard and fast doesn’t require a board,” she said. “Boards are for guidelines.”
CT Consultants is dividing its job into three phases: information gathering to be included in a report to be posted on the city’s website, a draft report based on collected comments, and a final report to city council, which will potentially transform the recommendations into legislation. The entire process may take about eight months, Rogers said.
Lifelong Kent resident Sally Burnell sat quietly at the July 6 meeting, listening carefully to all that was being said.
“I’m hopeful. I’m cautiously optimistic that something good will come of this,” she said.
Koogle shook his head. No amount of updating will change the ARB’s subjective purview, he said, suggesting that if council is truly uncomfortable with its role as final arbiter of ARB decisions, it could simply set up a separate appeals board.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.