Overview:

The downtown Eugene comedy club is applying for a city code variance that would allow them to have a digital sign, as the Hult Center does.

What’s 17 feet tall and asking the city of Eugene for permission to exist?

The digital sign that the operator of Olsen Run Comedy Club and Lounge is seeking municipal approval to install. 

The club, which is located in downtown Eugene at 44 East Seventh Avenue across from the Hult Center and Graduate Hotel, does not have a sign. The comedy club filed an application with the city May 22 to install a digital sign, generally not allowed by city codes.

The application includes a diagram of a sign, which would be 17 feet high with an 84-inch by 60-inch screen to display upcoming acts. Without permission for the digital sign, Olsen Run could install a static sign, similar to those of other downtown businesses, or an “electronic message center” limited to 3 square feet and no more than five displayed characters at once.

But Joe Sinclitico, the club’s co-owner and operator, said that wouldn’t work for a comedy club.

“If you’re a cheeseburger restaurant, or you’re a hotel, or you’re a mattress warehouse, your product doesn’t change,” he said. “It’s the same. You can use static signage and have it be effective. My product is changing on a daily basis. My product is comedians.”

A blue-gray building, Olsen Run Comedy Club and Lounge, with a boarded-up entrance, some lights turned on and bare exterior walls.
The exterior of Olsen Run Comedy Club and Lounge, located at 44 E. 7th Avenue in downtown Eugene. It does not currently have a sign outside to label the building or attract customers. Credit: Annie Aguiar / Lookout Eugene-Springfield

City standards for digital signs

The club needs the city to grant a variance from the city’s sign standards to install a sign. The guidance for digital signs says only institutions can have them. That includes, but is not limited to, places like churches, hospitals, schools, parks, libraries and post offices.  

But the code doesn’t mean other digital signs aren’t in downtown. That is underscored by the Hult Center’s digital sign across the street, a sticking point in the Olsen Run application.

“This creates an inherent inequity where a public venue enjoys the benefits of modern signage, while a private venue, serving the same public need for arts and entertainment, is left at a competitive disadvantage,” the application reads.

Reid Verner, the land use supervisor for the city of Eugene, said that because the Hult is city-owned, it didn’t need a variance.

Two other electronic signs in downtown did have to go through approval processes. One model for Olsen Run is the privately-owned Shedd Institute, which had its digital sign granted after an application for a variance that stressed that the arts venue was a destination for visitors. 

The other electronic sign downtown, at the McDonald Theatre, went through a different process. Because the theater is a historic property, it was exempt from the sign standard, instead going through a historic review board to approve alterations to its historic sign for digital capabilities.

Receiving permission to go against code

The city can’t grant variances, the code outlines, on the basis of economics or applicant convenience. Verner said receiving a variance against city codes is a high bar. 

“It’s one of the tougher applications to get,” he said. 

For approval, the application must show:

  • Strict interpretation of the code would result in “practical difficulty or undue physical hardship.”
  • There are exceptional circumstances for the property.
  • Granting the variance won’t be detrimental to public health, properties or improvements around it, and wouldn’t create a safety hazard.
  • Traffic, both present and anticipated, wouldn’t cause enforcement of the regulation.
  • Granting the variance wouldn’t cause the parking or loading of vehicles in public streets.

The Olsen Run application argues that the sign would meet all of the variance requirements. It claims practical difficulty by pointing to electronic signs at the Hult Center, Shedd Institute and McDonald Theatre as inconsistencies in application of the sign code. That puts Olsen Run at a competitive disadvantage for communicating about events, the application claims.

The city will have its initial review of the application for completeness by Friday, June 20. If the city says it’s complete, it has 45 days to make a decision on the application. That decision would also consider testimony from property owners within 300 feet and other stakeholders, solicited via public notice.

The sign isn’t to encourage ticket sales, Sinclitico said, as shows regularly sell out. He said it’s about creating visibility for the club as a part of a thriving arts scene in Eugene.

“When people drive through, they go, ‘Oh, wow, there’s an entertainment hub here, and they’re getting big famous acts,’” he said. “’There’s Jerry Seinfeld over at the Hult Center, and here’s Tiffany Haddish over at the Olsen Run Comedy Club.’ It makes it feel like a big city.”

Annie Aguiar is the Arts and Culture Correspondent. She has reported arts news and features for national and local newsrooms, including at the Seattle Times, the Washington Post and most recently as a reporting fellow for the New York Times’ Culture desk covering arts and entertainment.