Hundreds Sign Petition to Save Doughnut Mural in Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – Chattanooga Councilman, Chris Anderson, says, "Several hundred in fact have emailed me about this or signed a petition."

The uproar is over frosted doughnuts floating through the Southside, and coming to a rest on Barabra Davis’ storage building.

Davis adds, "And that was my gift."

To the City of Chattanooga, as well as her customer’s, she says, at Koch’s Bakery.

But the city isn’t so accepting of this mural.

They think it advertises her business and is, therefore, illegal.

That’s why there’s a petition floating around, in addition to the doughnuts.

People are speaking out.

Anderson says, "I’ve already got the city attorney’s working on a solution."

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke will not comment on the issue, but Anderson tells us he’s continuing to look into the grey areas of this ordinance.

Anderson adds, "I think it’s kind of a grey area about whether or not that’s art or advertisement. And the fact that it’s a grey area puts the city sign inspector in a bad position where he has to issue the citation even though it’s grey."

Anderson plans to bring his findings to next week’s council meeting.

Anderson adds, "It’s kind of a long process that it takes to actually make someone paint over a mural. We’ve got many weeks to do this, so I’m going to try and get the law changed before then, so we can clarify it for everybody including her."

The land development office says an inspector will stop by Koch’s Bakery sometime next week and issue an official 30 day notice to correct the problem.

They requested our cameras not be there, as they’ll also give Davis the option to take this issue to the appeals board.

If you want to sign the online petition, go to change.org/petitions or you can stop by Koch’s Bakery.