Residents of a small town in Tennessee shut down plans for Chick-fil-A to build a larger restaurant, sending the chicken chain back to the drawing board.
Chick-fil-A lost its bid to build the reported 6,110-square-foot restaurant in Collierville where the population is just over 50,000. Residents fought back against the restaurant chain’s plans, citing concerns over traffic.
“They said a new ‘mega’ Chick-fil-A would result in more cars clogging local roads. They presented the city with their own traffic analysis to show how the larger Chick-fil-A would negatively impact the community,” Business Insider reported.
Chick-fil-A touted the planned new build as the “latest greatest prototype Chick-fil-A has” before the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted it down, 5-1.
“The new Chick-fil-A restaurant had been in the works for months. The chain said it needed the larger restaurant to meet consumer demand for its food,” Insider reported. “The new restaurant would have included a 300-square-foot playground, an employee meeting room, a bigger dining room, double drive-thru lanes with the capacity to handle 43 cars, and expanded outdoor dining.”
But residents argued that this would only amount to Chick-fil-A “shifting” the customer traffic from one location to another, and the new location could be impacted in a greater way due to the potential of increased traffic from a larger restaurant.
“The overall sentiment from the board was that it was not the right location because of traffic concerns primarily related to Bray Station — a two-lane road that would provide access to the restaurant,” Jennifer Casey, a Public Information Officer for Collierville, told Business Insider.
One resident who opposed the plans for an expanded “mega” restaurant was happy with the outcome and the way city leaders handled the vote.
“They took the time to weigh all the facts, separating promises, good intentions and well wishes with reality,” Raymond Descheneaux told Business Insider.
The defeat sent Chick-fil-A back to the planning process where another proposal that “fully complies” with Collierville regulations can be submitted for approval.
“Chick-fil-A is a great corporate citizen, and we hope they will continue to invest in our community. Their next step is to submit a site plan for a location that fully complies with all town regulations,” Jaime Groce, Collierville’s Town Planner, said.
“That site plan would go back through the public planning process, which means being reviewed by the staff, Planning Commission, and Design Review Commission before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen would see it again,” she added.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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