Proposed move could bring more murals to Queen Creek

Queen Creek is taking steps to bring more public art to the town through a change in its sign ordinance.

During its Aug. 12 meeting, the Planning & Zoning Commission voted to recommend approval of new language covering murals, as well as exempting them from the town’s sign ordinance.

“Staff believes there’s a need to define. We do not have that currently identified within the zoning ordinance, but there’s been an increasing interest in establishing murals in our community and more specifically within our Downtown Core area,” Les Johnson, principal planner for the town, told the commission. “That has resulted in our Public Art and Placemaking Committee looking at that very carefully and actually they have been in the process of establishing some language for a mural program.”

The added language would make sure murals are not promoting a business, thus falling under the sign ordinance.

Under the new language, a mural would be defined as a “pictorial work of art that is painted, drawn, applied or projected on the exterior surface of a building or structure, that is non-commercial and does not name, advertise or promote a business, organization, service or product,” according to a staff report.

Johnson presented photos of murals currently around Queen Creek, including one that went up on the east side of Ellsworth Road just north of Aldecoa Drive. The mural is painted on a cinder block wall featuring the name of the town in blue script bracketed by saguaros on a white background.

In drafting the new language, Johnson said town staff researched the definitions of murals in neighboring municipalities such as Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe.

“I had the opportunity to visit Detroit with some staff members with the town of Queen Creek, and it just reminded us how, not necessarily needed it is, but how important I feel it is and we feel it is to implement this program,” said Commission Chair David Gillette. “It’s going to be another opportunity, I believe, to maintain the history of the town of Queen Creek as well as invite new ideas, and I think it’s incredible.”

The mural definition and exemption must still be approved by the Queen Creek Town Council.

The proposed mural program by the Public Art and Placemaking Committee is expected to go before the council in September, Johnson said.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.