UPDATE: Rovetti and the Meatballs to Play at Powell Ave. Market Grand Opening

Note: This article was updated on Friday, Oct. 21 to offer details on the Grand Opening.

a popular local band, will play at the Grand Opening for Powell Avenue Market.

As detailed on the event Facebook Page, the festivities will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the market -- affectionately called the "little store" at 555 Powell Ave.

It’s been a long summer for Ann Bigham at the – taking over the “little store” she grew up with, clearing out inventory, opening up the layout, offering good quality sandwiches and salads, and trying to get the message out that there are new owners at the neighborhood store.

“I am overwhelmed, and excited,” she said recently about the past couple months. “I just hope that more and more people in the neighborhood realize that we have regular hours and we are here early, and that catches on.”

The store’s new hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and it stays open until 7 on Friday and Saturday. Sunday hours are 9 – 3.

It should be easy enough to find. The new Powell Avenue Market sign was finally erected on Thursday, ending any uncertainty as to the purpose of the repainted, renovated and restocked corner store.

But it’s been a lengthy process to get the sign up, according to Bigham, a process that started when she and designer Joey Manfre sketched out the image of a picnic basket for her store logo. They contacted about creating a sign to replace the old weathered one that had long marked the neighborhood market.

Shortly after taking possession on Aug. 15, Bigham had the old sign taken down and the building painted, but the now-unmarked building was unidentifiable unless you already knew it was a store.

“I would see people walk by and do a double-take, as if saying to themselves, ‘What is this place?’,” said Bigham.

Bigham wanted a large oval sign on the west-facing side of the building, for maximum visibility for traffic coming up Powell. But she ran into city regulations that limit the size of signs based on the size of the storefront.

All signage must be approved by the , a role currently undertaken by senior planner (who took over the task due to staff downsizing last year), and she initially rejected the large oval sign.

While the rules are not onerous, they are rules. Essentially for every lineal foot of storefront property, a business gets half a square foot of signage. Thus, the Powell Avenue Market’s property is, according to Goldberg, “95 feet, which allows a maximum total sign area of 47.5. Alternatively, you could use the building’s [street-facing] width to determine total sign area at a 1:1 ratio, which would only result in 30 square feet.”

The square footage is cumulative, too – meaning a business that wants a big building sign plus window signage may have to decide between the two to meet the limit. In the Powell Avenue Market’s case, two signs were called for – one for the west-facing side, and one for the street-facing side, the front of the building.

There are a number of documents that explain the city’s regulations and application process for signs, several of which are attached to this article as PDFs. “If people understand the process it can go pretty darn fast,” said Goldberg. “Like a day or two.”

But as is often the case with small businesses, the sign envisioned by the owner is not always the sign that results.

“A lot of people want the biggest sign they can get, but we have to do a balance, especially in the downtown area,” Goldberg said. “That’s why people come [to Healdsburg], because it’s attractive.”

Usually the process is smoothly worked out between the senior planner, the business and one of the two major sign companies in town, Healdsburg Signs and Signs by Bob – “they’ve both been very good about it,” as Goldberg made it a point to say.

In fact she could only think of one issue of signage that went so far as to be appealed to the , which sided with her office against Franzen Building owners who wanted a large sign on top of the Matheson St. structure (where and are located) that could be seen from the Plaza.

While the Powell Avenue Market application was not bound for the Planning Commission, it was still the case that Bigham’s original idea of a large oval sign was just too large – at 60 sq. feet, her sign well exceeded city limits, and even if approved would have precluded a sign on the Powell Street side.

So Healdsburg Signs’ Jim Lago took charge. “I came up with the secondary rectangle design to get  ‘more bang for your buck’ because a sign’s square footage is considered by its total height and total width, and an oval has a lot of ‘wasted’ area on the corners.  The rectangle was the better choice in this situation.”

Bigham agreed, and the application was resubmitted.

“I received the sign application and details of the proposed permanent signs from Healdsburg Signs on September 17th,” Goldberg said, “and advised them shortly thereafter that the sizes and designs of the sign could be approved.”

This week, the crew at Healdsburg Signs produced the two signs – a long rectangle for the west side, and a smaller oval for the street side – and hired a contractor to put them up, which they did on Thursday, Oct. 13.

Although that's two full months after Bigham took over the business, it's still in plenty of time for the Grand Opening next weekend. “I really want it to be a family day and a thank you to the neighbors and community,” Bigham said. "And to call attention to Koop's Katering, which has done such a good job for us."

She concluded, “I just want everyone to have a nice day.”