City looking for public input on sign design at borders along major thoroughfares

The City of Cedar Park is looking to take another step in branding the city to potential visitors and primary employers by further differentiating itself from surrounding areas with signs to alert those entering and leaving that they are crossing the threshold of the city.

The 4B Community Development Board—which has the power to use a half of a cent of sales tax revenues to fund projects such as parks, road improvements and economic development incentive packages—expressed an interest in funding signage of this type. A subcommittee was formed with several 4B members, Cedar Park mayoral candidate Matt Powell and Councilman Don Tracy to explore the idea.

"I think the big picture is right now there is not a clear distinction for visitors when they're coming into the city on our major arterials, so it would certainly establish a clear, noticeable, recognizable, iconic boundary when people come into the city," Tracy said.

Audrey Warneke is a member of both the subcommittee and the 4B board. She is an architect by trade, so she took an interest in the designs. SEC Planning LLC came up with the initial designs, and after input from the subcommittee, the designs were taken to the Cedar Park City Council.

"I think a lot of other cities in our area and in Central Texas Hill Country go for the more traditional stone look, which is nice and pretty, but I would like to see the city push the limit a little bit on design," Warneke said. "We have a lot of technology companies in the city, and we have some additional tech companies we would like to see come to the city."

Subcommittee member Mo Jahadi said the number and placement of the signs will depend on the cost of the signs.

Mayoral candidate Wayne Ruark said he does not believe the signs are a good use of 4B funds, and though there is not a concrete number attached to the project so far, he said there are other things he would prefer to see that money used for.

"There's been no price tag put on them, but I'm sure with the looks of them, there's going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. There's so much else that money could go toward," Ruark said.

Warneke justified using 4B funds, saying it fits with the 4B board's mission.

"It's a good use of 4B funds because the city is looking as always to, for lack of a better word, for PR, but to promote itself, and the 4B money is for community development and part of that is community identification, and this falls under that category," Warneke said. "It's just a way for the city to be able to identify itself to visitors or businesses coming in that hey, you are in our great city."