Higher ground for Bass Pro: East Ridge trades Camp Jordan dirt for park improvements

photo Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge along I-75 is set to open in 2016.
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Bass Pro Shops developer Exit One LLC will swap fill dirt from Camp Jordan Park for a list of company-bought park improvements, including a large pavilion with fire pit, new restrooms and renovated existing restrooms.

The company asked East Ridge city leaders for the trade at Thursday's regular meeting.

And East Ridge officials ultimately responded with a unanimous yes, but the swap became very convoluted before it became official.

Exit One's initial proposal was to build two new soccer fields at Camp Jordan Park in exchange for taking a few feet of dirt out of the 10 to 11 acres of land in the northwest quadrant of Camp Jordan.

That proposition met stiff resistance, so Exit One came back with an offer to build four small pavilions, a new restroom, new walking trails and repair work to the disc golf holes torn up in the dirt work.

Marvin "Stump" Martin said the campground doesn't need four small pavilions. He said the park's existing pavilion gets a lot of use, so the camp really needs another large pavilion, and a fire/barbecue pit inside.

Done, said John Healy, partner at Exit One.

And how about a gravel road down to the canoe launch?

Healy said the developers will take gravel from a temporary road elsewhere from their dirt work and when it's finished, make a gravel road to the canoe launch.

So what about adding extra bathroom stalls to the new restroom facility, making it a four-to-two, women-to-men stall ratio?

"From a cost standpoint, we are limited in what we are willing to do," said Healy, adding that after making park improvements, the trade "is basically a wash for us."

However, the city conceded the number of pavilions to allow the added cost of larger bathrooms. Exit One is still repairing the disc golf holes destroyed during dirt work and building walking trails.

Healy said Exit One stands to save about $100,000 in transportation costs by taking dirt from Camp Jordan and carrying it next door to the Jordan Crossing and Bass Pro Shops development site.

"It's not in the value of the dirt," he said. "There's plenty of free dirt out there."

The real value for Exit One is the increase in developable Jordan Crossing land with the trade.

A segment of the northwest corner of Camp Jordan is significantly higher than the rest of the park, the result of a lot of dirt being dumped by someone, at some point in the past near the banks of Chickamauga Creek.

Because most of the future Jordan Crossing development is -- like most of East Ridge -- in a flood plain, the base elevation must be raised. Therefore a combination of federal and local regulations require that elevation somewhere else be taken down, to balance the raised elevation.

The goal in choosing the high spot in Camp Jordan Park was to increase flood capacity to meet regulations in a way that has minimal impact for Camp Jordan.

Derek Blackwood, a project engineer with MAP Engineers, told city leaders that the removal of the Camp Jordan mound "would improve conditions of the floodway and improve the conditions in the park itself."

He said it is impossible to guarantee that the Camp Jordan Arena won't flood after the mound is removed, but that removing the dirt won't increase the risk. He reiterated that removing the dirt will help overall flooding conditions at the park.

Healy told city leaders that Exit One is already talking with two retailers interested in coming to Jordan Crossing, and he said the dirt swap was crucial to landing them, because Exit One could not make a deal while not knowing if the developable land is available.

"It's no secret. It does benefit us as a developer," he said. "I'm not trying to hide that."

Jim Bethune, East Ridge vice mayor, was the most vocal opponent of the swap, but he flipped the script by the end of the night and made the motion for city leaders to approve the deal.

Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.

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