Zoning Appeals Board Approves BP Variance

An artists sketch of the new Bass Pro Shops sign, far right, which the ER Board of Zoning Appeals granted Tuesday evening.

The East Ridge Board of Zoning Appeals met Tuesday evening and granted a variance allowing Bass Pro Shops to put up a sign along Interstate 75.

Officials said a variance was needed because the proposed sign for the giant outdoor retailer is much larger than the current ordinance allows. The Bass Pro sign is 500 square feet, while the current ordinance prohibits signs greater that 125 square feet.

The new sign _ designed by Joy Frazier of a company called Elemoose _ will be about 500 feet from I-75 and about 600 feet from Ringgold Road. The sign is the same sign that the new Bass Pro Shop has in Bristol, Tenn.

Bass Pro Shops will be the centerpiece of Jordan Crossing, a new retail shopping complex being developed by Wolftever Development at Exit 1. The new Bass Pro Shops’ anticipated opening is in June.

_ Matthew DeGlopper contributed to this story

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.