Ringgold approves restaurant proposal

Ringgold, Ga. City Council members changed their minds this week, letting a developer use metal siding on a new Battlefield Parkway restaurant.

The council first rebuffed on March 27 the request from Emerson Russell, on the grounds that the city’s code does not allow for a building with metal exterior walls. But an attorney representing Russell brought the request before the council again Monday, and that time the elected officials approved the variance.

The difference? Through his lawyer, Russell promised to plant 25 Leyland cypress trees that will cover the south and west sides of the building.

After the council first rejected the request, Russell threatened to get his property de-annexed from the city, costing Ringgold property and sales tax revenue. Russell could have accomplished that through an act passed by state legislators, if it was game.

“Really, truly, cooler heads have prevailed,” said Councilwoman Sara Clark, one of the “no” votes against Russell four months ago.

The owners of Farm to Fork plan to move their restaurant from a strip mall at 118 Remco Shops to Russell’s building on Battlefield Parkway. It will sit next to a Hampton Inn and a Spring Hill Suites, which Russell is also developing.

The walls of the building are metal, but Russell said he will wrap two sides with wood siding and rock. He would leave the metal exposed on the other sides. Clark, a former member of the city’s planning and zoning commission, said that would violate Ringgold’s codes, which she helped adopt.

“We were trying to increase our standards,” she said during the March meeting. “Anything that you put up there that met those standards just looks so much better.”

In addition to Clark, councilmen Randall Franks and Jake Haynes voted against Russell’s variance request four months ago. Councilmen Larry Black and Terry Crawford wanted it to be approved. All five voted in favor of the variance this week.

Russell said he was putting more than $1 million into the project. Wrapping the other two sides of the building would cost at least an extra $50,000. He was already over budget, and he wasn’t going to add another expense. Either approve the plan, he told the council in March, or he was going to stop the project altogether.

“Under the restrictions,” he told Clark at the time, “we could put vinyl siding on it. Metal’s going to look a whole lot better in 10, 15 years than vinyl siding. If you want to put vinyl siding on it, OK, I’ll put vinyl siding on it. But it’s going to degrade the property.”

After that meeting, he warned he could de-annex the property. But this week he said he never pursued that option. He expects the restaurant will be ready to open in 90 days.

ROSSVILLE FINES

The Rossville City Council on Monday approved a slight tweak in fines for people who violate city codes. Before, a person would be on the hook for a $141 fine for the first offense within a year. The second fine in that period would cost $282, the third fine $564, and every fine after that would cost $1,000.

Under the change, the fines start at $150, then go to $300, then to $600, then to $1,000 for every fine after that.