The Courthouse Square Historic Preservation Commission denied a request from an architect representing Italian restaurant Saint Leo to change the decals on the facade of the restaurant that is expected to open this spring on the downtown Square.

The commission approved a gold, diamond-shaped decal last month that had the name of the restaurant and the words Wood Fire Italian Restaurant.

The decals were to go on the three transom windows. The restaurant owners decided they would rather have something simpler and with more information so they asked the commission to approve the new design for the decals where the name of the restaurant would go in the middle, with the one on the left announcing cocktails were available and the one on the right stating there are salads,  pizza and a wood fire oven.

Only four of the six commissioners were present. They voted 2 to 2 to deny the new decals. The two commissioners voting against the new design said they felt it was “too busy” and preferred the former design.

The commission then re-voted to allow for store information to be added to the front windows and allow the owners to use the former gold, triangle design but change the wording inside.

The commission also discussed, again, the Certificate of Appropriateness application that has been tweaked several times over the last few months by both the Courthouse Square commission and the residential Historic Preservation Commission.

The application will be available online in the future and will require developers and owners to provide much more detailed information on renovations, additions and new construction in their application packet.

Commissioners suggested adding verbiage that would require a property owner to sign the application, not just the developer or architect, and adding steps an applicant can take if their application is denied.