Planning Board Tables Heaven's Gas LED Sign Upgrade, Seeks Brightness Data

MILTON -- June 15, 2026, Milton's Planning Board unanimously tabled a request to upgrade Heaven's Gas Station's manual pricing sign to an LED electronic display, sending the applicant back with homework before a July 13 hearing. Sign consultant Heather Dutko, representing INQ Enterprise LLC at 381 Boynton Street, proposed keeping the existing roughly 20-square-foot cabinet while swapping in an LED unit with 16-inch numerals, more than twice the height approved for comparable stations in town. Planning Director Becky Hebert's staff report warned the sign sits in the public right-of-way, potentially deepening a nonconformity, and members asked the applicant to return with a photometric plan, lumen specifications, and a demonstration of 12-inch white numerals. Neighbor Scott Close of Servant Street told the board he can see a comparable LED gas sign from nearly three-quarters of a mile away in Manchester and said the upgrade would push a light-pollution problem "much further down the road." In separate action, the board unanimously approved a broad package of amendments to the town's land development control regulations, including extensions of active-and-substantial-development deadlines from two to three years and vesting periods from five to seven years, driven largely by changes in New Hampshire state law.