Key Points:
• Several city council members questioned the impact that the restaurant would have on an already-crowded corridor.
• Raising Cane’s representatives said the community supports the restaurant and that the traffic impact would be minimal.
Members of the Dunwoody City Council, at its Nov. 10 meeting, voiced serious concerns about granting a Special Land Use Permit that would allow a drive-through fast-food restaurant on Ashford Dunwoody Road.
Raising Cane’s is petitioning for the SLUP in order to construct a 2,900 square-foot restaurant with double-drive-through service lanes on a 1.56-acre site at 4570 Ashford Dunwoody Rd. The site formerly housed a bank and has been vacant for about two years.
The site had already been approved by the council for a zoning change from O-I (Office-Industrial) to PC-1 to allow for a restaurant as an accepted use.
A staff memo summarizing the SLUP request said that it recommended the application be denied for a variety of reasons, including concerns about the proximity of its curb cut to a nearby McDonald’s, the impact on the egress and ingress at a nearby hotel, and the amount of traffic it would attract on an already-crowded corridor. The Dunwoody Planning Commission also voted at its September meeting to recommend denial of the application.
Several members of the panel asked pointed questions about traffic studies conducted by Raising Cane’s, with several citing comments made by Le Meridian Hotel’s Matt Munoz, who said the guests at the hotel would be adversely affected by the proposed drive-through.
“I thought that the Raising Cane’s was in the rearview window,” Munoz said. “My concerns over traffic have not been assuaged.”
Council Member John Heneghan said his major concern in granting the SLUP is centered on the potential impact it could have on neighboring properties.
“I am hearing from the Le Meridian that they would be adversely affected, and I take that very seriously,” Heneghan said.
Mayor Lynn Deutsch said “it should be no surprise” that she opposes the project.
“Even as early as 2022, I said this was something I could not support,” she told Raising Cane’s representatives. “Some of your competitors are building fast food restaurants without a drive-through.”
Raising Cane’s representatives said the group did an extensive traffic study, using simulated data and representative data from the company’s Buford location. They said the studies show that traffic disruption would be minimal because of protocols that would be put into place at peak hours and during the first weeks of opening.
Related story:
• Raising Cane’s proposes new restaurant on Ashford Dunwoody Road
• DHA hears Raising Cane’s proposal for a new quick-service restaurant
“We’ve studied, studied, studied this thing to death,” Raising Cane’s Harold Buckley said, adding that Raising Cane’s intends to sign a 40-year lease and has pledged, as they have done historically, to support the community.
One person spoke against the matter, and several attendees held up signs in support of the project during Raising Cane’s presentation. The matter will be taken up again at the council’s Dec. 1 meeting.
In other news, the council, after holding a public hearing, delayed at the request of the developers, deliberations on a zoning change and SLUP at a property across the street from Perimeter Mall, another request that Dunwoody’s staff felt should be denied. The matter will be taken up at the council’s Jan. 12 meeting.
The property, located at 84 Perimeter Center East, has been a chameleon over the past 15 years. The plan – which has been modified at least five times over the past 15 years – in the latest iteration, lessened its density and reduced the number of options for the site.
In the fifth version of the development, the three-story building proposed in the fourth version was divided into one two-story building and one one-story building, and the 14-story building, which developers wanted to be a hotel, age-restricted apartments, or owner-occupied condominiums, has now returned to the original approved use, age-restricted apartments.
A city staff memo did not recommend the rezoning and SLUP for passage, saying that “the general concept of a mixed-use development with limited surface parking, new open space, street-front dining and retail, with a residential or hotel component is consistent with the intent of the PC-2 zoning district, but the inclusion of a drive-through is problematic.”
At its Aug. 12 meeting, the Dunwoody Planning Commission recommended, despite the staff’s objections, rezoning and a SLUP to allow the 2.86-acre site to be redeveloped that would include retail, age-restricted apartments, and a drive-through restaurant, which is tentatively identified as Chicago-based Portillo’s.
In other action, the council:
• voted to accept a $10,000 donation from the estate of Dr. Betty Wills to
be used for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of American flags in all parks in the city. According to a staff memo, Wills was known to the Parks Department as the “Flag Lady” as she traditionally planted American flags in each Dunwoody park;
• adopted a parks master plan at Homecoming Park on Vermack Road that will include sand volleyball courts;
• recognized the 17th class of graduates of the Dunwoody Police Academy;
• approved a major master sign plan for Campus 244 that includes way-finding, canopy signs, awnings, and painted mural signs;
• voted to rezone a building on Shallowford Road from O-I (Office Institution) to C-1 (Local Commercial) to allow an animal hospital/veterinary clinic;
• heard highlights from Dunwoody City Manager Eric Linton’s monthly report.
The post Chicken run may end for one Dunwoody proposed drive-through on Ashford Dunwoody Road appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.
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