Plan for drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A gets OK from Charlotte council for Cotswold location
A new drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A can be built in Cotswold after the Charlotte City Council approved a controversial rezoning petition Tuesday.
The popular fast-food chain’s rezoning petition drew concerns from some on City Council and other residents about approving a car-centric development while the city pursues goals to build denser, more walkable neighborhoods.
With the 8-3 approval, Chick-fil-A will tear down its Randolph Road location and replace it with a new restaurant. The current restaurant’s dining room has been closed since the pandemic.
Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston and council members Renee Johnson and LaWana Mayfield voted against the petition.
The new drive-thru-only location will have two lanes for cars to order, pick up food and exit. Currently, there are two lanes that merge into one at the pickup window.
The site, which sits next to a Publix grocery store, is known to have a line of waiting cars back up onto Randolph Road. Chick-fil-A representatives believe the redesigned restaurant will help alleviate traffic congestion.
City staff backs rezoning
The city’s zoning committee voted unanimously this month to recommend approval of the petition. City staff also recommended approval, finding the petition was reasonable because the Chick-fil-A was already an existing use on the property.
In its rationale for recommending approval, city staff wrote that the design could provide benefits to the transportation infrastructure in the immediate area.
Other council members agreed the petition would help improve the area for pedestrians.
“This is to take an existing use that will be there no matter what on a very dense, highly-traveled-by-vehicles corridor and it will make that incrementally better,” councilman Tariq Bokhari said before the vote. “And will enable (Chick-fil-A) customers to get their product more quickly.”
Some other city leaders did not support the rezoning petition.
Keba Samuel, chair of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, urged council members in an email hours before Tuesday’s meeting to vote against the petition. Samuel said she worried that approving the petition would set a “dangerous” precedent that could allow for more auto-intense development. Samuel observed the zoning committee meeting this month; she did not vote.
“Approving this rezoning and allowing for a more auto-intense use of this site in an area that is becoming more urban, an area where Council has recently approved additional density, is highly contradictory,” Samuel wrote in her email.
Samuel does not support a ban on drive-thrus but said the city must be forward-looking when considering them in parts of the city that are becoming more dense.
Winston voiced his concerns about the petition during a November public hearing. He said the restaurant is in a place that is growing quickly and becoming more dense. “This is the last place I’d want to put a drive-thru only,” Winston said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Winston made a motion to defer the petition to a later date, but it failed to get enough votes.
Plans for new Chick-fil-A
The new restaurant will have a bigger kitchen, meaning it can fulfill orders more quickly, John Carmichael, an attorney representing Chick-fil-A told council members in November.
The new lanes and bigger kitchen will help address — but not completely solve — the issue of cars backing up onto Randolph Road, Carmichael said.
While there will be no seating inside, the restaurant will have a walk-up area with a patio on the right side of the building.
Chick-fil-A said it will contribute $70,000 to the city for the installation of a traffic signal or other improvement at Randolph Road and the entrance to Publix, according to city documents.
This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 6:39 PM.
