Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Signage‑variance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
BZA denies large signage variances for proposed Midway Road gas station after community objections
Summary
After sustained public comment and board discussion, the BZA denied requests for substantially larger and taller signs — including a proposed 100‑foot pylon and expanded electronic price board — for a proposed gas station at the Midway Road interchange, finding no demonstrated hardship.
The Board of Zoning Appeals denied a package of signage variances for a proposed gas station and convenience store near the Midway Road interstate interchange after community members and the board concluded the applicant had not demonstrated the hardship required to justify such large and tall signs.
Staff summarized eight requests that together sought to increase allowable detached sign height from 35 feet to 100 feet and maximum sign area for a secondary detached sign from 200 square feet to 1,254 square feet; the application also requested a much larger electronic price board and oversized directional signs for truck fueling islands. Staff asked the applicant to address the “minimum adjustment necessary” standard in Article 16.3 e 0.4.
Ben Kirk of the Ferber Company, speaking for the applicant, said the site sits roughly 250–300 feet back from Midway Road and about 75–300 feet from the interstate off‑ramp and is up a 40‑plus‑foot rise and behind tree lines. Kirk said a taller and larger sign is needed so interstate motorists — often driving 65–75 mph — can safely identify the exit and maneuver to the off‑ramp. “By getting the 100‑foot sign that allows our c‑store … [to] give the ability for traffic to ease over to the right lane,” Kirk said.
Opponents included Scenic Knoxville president Joyce Feld and Elaine Clark of the East Knox Community Plan steering committee. Feld explained the city rewrote its sign ordinance in 2015 with public input to reduce sign clutter and said the proposed pylon — 100 feet tall and 1,254 square feet — would undercut that policy. “Strict application of the ordinance would not deprive the owner of reasonable use of the property,” she told the board, and Scenic Knoxville urged denial. Clark, speaking for the Midway Business Park steering committee, said the larger signs would harm the rural viewshed and the gateway to the French Broad River corridor and requested denial.
Kevin Murphy noted the East Knox Community Plan had been incorporated into the city’s general plan and urged the board to consider whether the variances would conflict with that plan.
Board members divided the application. They voted first to deny requests 1–3 — the high‑rise pylon height and area and the expanded EMC price‑sign matrix area — on grounds of lack of hardship. The chair and other members said they found the requested increases disproportionate to the ordinance standard and were not satisfied the applicant had shown that lesser measures would be inadequate. The board subsequently discussed items 4–8 (directional sign heights and areas) and again concluded the record did not demonstrate the hardship necessary to grant those internal directional sign variances; the board voted to deny items 4–8 as well.
With the denials, the applicant may still proceed with a development that complies with the city’s sign ordinance limits. The board noted engineering, topography and safety arguments raised by the applicant but said those reasons did not establish the legal standard for a variance in this case.
