Crimson Travel Sues to Retain Sign

The owner of Crimson Travel Inc. appealed to the Superior Court of Middlesex County last week in an effort to keep the 6 by 15 foot illuminated sign that he installed earlier this year at the company's offices on the corner of Boylston and Mount Auburn Streets.

At a hearing on October 1, the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal refused to modify an earlier decision and allow the owner, David S. Paresky to use the sign, so Paresky is taking the Zoning Board to Court, a city spokesman said last week.

The chairman of the Zoning Board Hugh A. Russell, said the restrictions on Crimson Travel's signs were part of the 1978 decision to allow the company to expand up two stories. "At that time we noticed the small building was peppered with signs, and we didn't want any more even on a larger building," he added.

Surprised

Paresky refused to comment on the case last week. His lawyer, Raymond King, said at the hearing, "Crimson Travel did not add a sign but replaced one already there with a larger sign more in scale with a larger building."

In a letter to the Court last week, King added that a permit for the sign issued in November, 1980 by the building inspector was irrevocable as of June 1981.

"Shameful"

"The building inspector mistakenly issued the permit without checking the file to see if there were any restrictions on the building," Russell said last week.

Martha Laurence, a spokesman for the Neighborhood Ten Association, said "This issue is one of many that is contributing to a growing support in our group for stiffer sign control."