CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Cabela's can build an extra-large and tall sign to help folks find its new store at Southridge Center, but not quite as large and tall as it wanted, a city agency ruled Thursday.

Also, Security America Inc. will keep its corporate offices in Kanawha City after members of the city zoning board approved a parking variance the company needed for a planned expansion.

Robert Deriggi, a Fairmont sign contractor, told members of the Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals that Cabela's wanted to erect a 16- by 32-foot sign atop two 90-foot poles to help motorists on Corridor G find the store.

The proposed 512-square-foot sign would have been more than six times the 80-square-foot maximum allowed by zoning regulations, and would have soared 55 feet above the 35-foot limit for pole signs.

Deriggi showed a series of photo illustrations of what the sign would look like from various points, based on field mockups he did last year using a crane to lift a banner. One showed the proposed sign between pole signs for the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants.

"One [sign] is 36 feet tall, the other 35 feet," Deriggi said, "but with the visual perspective, our mockup is very close to the other signs."

Steve Mallory, chairman of the zoning board, said the key word is perspective. "If you go a mile out, what is it?" he asked.

Cabela's draws in people from outside the local community, Deriggi said. "They'll have meeting rooms, educational facilities. They'll have shows up there. Coming up from I-64, with the visual-response time, you don't want to be coming across six lanes of traffic at the last minute."

Dave Cunningham, a National Weather Service electronic systems analyst, said the proposed sign might interfere with the Doppler radar signals from the nearby weather bureau operations.

"We've been working with him, and he's been working with us, to make sure there's no interference," Cunningham said.

"I don't want to block progress. It normally takes around two weeks [to do the analysis]. We did the same thing with the 911 center, the antennas."

Mallory asked Southridge developer Richard Rashid whether Cabela's could use an existing multi-tenant sign used by Home Depot. Rashid said it could, but the lettering might not be legible from a distance.

"I don't think it was our intent to put a 90-foot sign up there," said Rashid, president of Ridge Line Inc. "We had to move 3 million yards of dirt, and we still don't have visibility from the road. It's a hardship for them.

"I don't know what the future holds, but Cabela's is pretty exciting," he said. "It brings people who wouldn't normally shop here."

In the end, zoning board members went along with the city Planning Department staff recommendation of a 450-square-foot sign, 70 feet tall, provided there's no problem with the Weather Service radar.

"I'll stress this does represent a unique situation," said Courtlandt Smith, who made the motion. "The site is at the back of the property, has no visibility from the road and is a destination for people from out of town, so it represents a hardship."

Board members also approved a parking variance requested by Bill Signorelli, founder and president of Security America. He plans to build a 1,920-square-foot addition on his office building at 5407 MacCorkle Ave., which would raise the parking requirement to 19 spaces.

Since the rear lot would have only 16 spaces after the addition, Signorelli has leased 25 spaces next door.

"That allows us to keep our corporate offices here in Charleston," he said after the meeting. Security America has more than 250 employees across the state, mostly working in the field at coal mines and hospitals, he said.

"We have another 150 in Ohio and Pennsylvania," he added, "with offices in Columbus, Steubenville and Madison, West Virginia."

After the $350,000 expansion, he said, he plans add about five managers to the dozen people who work at the headquarters.

Other board members at the meeting were Bill Hairston and Jim Lane.

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102.