Updated at 7:09 p.m.

Northeast: the Times Square of booze?

Minneapolis' mammoth liquor store east of the river, Surdyk's, wants to install a moving sign so large that city planners say it could pose a public safety hazard.

The City Planning Commission is slated to discuss Surdyk's proposed 262-square-foot "dynamic sign" facing University Ave. at their meeting on Monday. In a staff report, city planners wrote that the sign, "over 8 times greater than what the Zoning Code allows, would be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, comfort or general welfare."

They specify that it would be "a distraction for passing motorists" and set a "precedent for businesses desiring large dynamic signs."

What does the sign look like? We don't have a picture, but the top half displays the name of their business in white against a red background, while the bottom half "would be of changing programming." See the picture below.

Presumably it is computerized and uses LEDs to change the text. The city defines a dynamic sign as "a sign, or any element of a sign, which provides the ability to change text or images, or exhibits changing effects in order to provide intermittent illumination or the illusion of such illumination, or any series of imagery or display which may appear to move or change, including changes produced by any electronic method."

The planning staff recommended that the commission deny the permit. They added that Surdyk's should instead construct two connected signs: one on top made of aluminum and neon, and another below it with "dynamic" components.

UPDATE: Below is a mockup of what the proposed sign looks like.