Traffic, safety concerns lead Chick-fil-A to plan second drive-through lane in Patton Township
To address safety concerns and accommodate more cars, Chick-fil-A has submitted plans to add a second drive-through lane to its North Atherton location, where traffic congestion is known to be an issue not only in its parking lot but also spilling out into the street.
Over the summer, Chick-fil-A conducted a traffic study, Doug Wolfe, of Chick-fil-A Corporate, said during Wednesday’s Patton Township Supervisors meeting. That study identified that they needed to increase the ability to stack cars on site and accommodate no less than 24 cars in its drive-through queue, which is from the order point to the parking lot entrance.
A site plan was designed with dual drive-through lanes the entire way around the site, which would accommodate about 45 cars.
“What that allows us to do is to get those cars off of the public roads, get them onto our site, and then get them into the queue and ready for placing their orders,” Wolfe said.
They’re proposing a dual lane drive-through as well as a face-to-face ordering canopy. Instead of one person placing an order at one speaker box, there would be two speaker boxes. During high volume times, four to six Chick-fil-A employees can also be outside taking orders with iPads, he said.
With other models, Wolfe said the dual drive-through lanes would eventually merge into one lane for meal pick up, but this plan does not incorporate that. Instead, the two lanes will continue around the building and a sliding door will be installed for a meal fulfillment zone. There, instead of one person receiving their meal at a time, between four to six Chick-fil-A employees can be at the drive-through door and use a crosswalk to deliver meals to the cars.
Wolfe said each year, Chick-fil-A does about 15-20 “reinvestment projects.” The North Atherton Street location was chosen due to its “high volume and need for additional ordering capacity and production capacity,” he said.
“We’ve also heard the concern from the community. We understand the safety concerns that we have at this location and a lot of that has gone into the design that we have, and really kind of drives some of the reasons why we’ll be requesting variances to be able to execute our primary strategy for this reinvestment plan,” Wolfe said.
There would be three phases: site improvements (adding the second drive-through lane and increasing ordering capacity), kitchen capacity improvements (geared to increasing production capacity and speed of service) and brand image refresh (updating interior finishes, seating and signage).
Supervisor Anita Thies asked what, if anything, Chick-fil-A could do to educate its patrons not to turn left into the restaurant’s parking lot. Supervisors passed an ordinance in August 2020 that prohibits left turns out of the parking lot. There are also township and state Department of Transportation signs that prohibit left turns into the parking lot. Thies said the challenge is that people are waiting on Atherton and make a left turn into the parking lot.
In November alone, the Patton Township Police Department issued 58 warnings to drivers who made an illegal left turn there, police Chief Tyler Jolley said.
Wolfe said with the brand image refresh, he would be willing to put up “no left turn” signage for customers leaving the site. Thies suggested Chick-fil-A also work with Google Maps and Apple Maps to take out the ability to make that left hand turn, which Wolfe said he would look into more.
What’s next?
Chick-fil-A has submitted an application for a variance to the Patton Township Zoning Hearing Board and a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Variances are requested for side and rear yard setbacks for canopy structures over portions of the drive-through lanes, and for rear yard screening requirements, according to the Patton Township Supervisors meeting agenda.
Once the zoning hearing board has made a decision, Chick-fil-A can submit plans to the Engineering, Planning and Zoning Department for review and comment, the agenda states. Once staff has reviewed the plans for compliance with township zoning and land development regulations, the Planning Commission will review and make a recommendation to the supervisors.
Wolfe said he hopes the restaurant will be under construction by mid-summer, which would mean the restaurant would be closed for about 10 weeks.
