Chick-fil-a’s Collierville plan rejected: Here’s why and what’s next
Chick-fil-a was looking to build a bigger location that would replace its existing restaurant in Collierville, but those plans got stopped Monday night.
The Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted 5-1 to deny a preliminary site plan for the project. Aldermen Billy Patton, John Worley, John Stamps and Missy Marshall along with Mayor Stan Joyner voted against the site plan, while Aldermen Maureen Fraser was the lone person for it.
The aldermen who opposed Chickfil-a’s plan expressed traffic and safety concerns similar to those voiced by several residents at Monday’s meeting.
They believed having the high-volume restaurant at the location on Bray Station Road at Poplar Avenue would lead to increased traffic on an already busy and precarious road. They said building the restaurant would be a potential safety hazard.
“We have an obligation as elected officials to put safety first,” Marshall said. “There are a lot of assumptions being made. But when it comes to safety, I don’t want to make any assumptions.”
The proposed Chick-fil-a was to sit on 2.54 acres located north of Poplar Avenue, west of Bray Station Road and east of Cartwright Farm Lane. Worley said the continuous traffic difficulties on Bray Station Road weighed heavily in the decision to keep the development from going forward.
Worley acknowledged the importance of Chick-fil-a in Collierville but because of the well-known traffic issues on Bray Station Road that made it hard for him to help move the preliminary site plan forward.
Grant Gibbs, owner and operator of the Collierville Chick-fil-a, said during the meeting that preliminary talks and discussions started in 2014 about building a new location. Officials knew then that the current restaurant at 1036 W. Poplar Ave. wouldn’t be able to effectively serve customers in the future.
“We trusted in the experts,” Gibbs said. “We brought them in, and they did traffic studies and all these things to tell what can and cannot be done. The town engineer and town staff have done a great job of working alongside those folks and coming up with can and cannot work. I respectfully submit to the board that this can work. I’m not going anywhere. I intend on being the franchise owner hopefully as long as I live. If there is an issue, I have always worked in the past with the town.”
What’s next for Chick-fil-a in Collierville?
Collierville Town Planner Jaime Groce told The Commercial Appeal in a statement on Tuesday that the next step for Chick-fil-a is to submit a site plan for a location that fully complies with all town regulations. Town officials do not know if Chick-fil-a will resubmit a new preliminary site plan at the same location or for a new address.
Chick-fil-a didn’t respond to a request for additional comment Tuesday.
Groce said any new 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. The planning commission and design review commission both recommended approval of Chick-fila’s preliminary site plan with conditions in December.
“Chick-fil-a is a great corporate citizen, and we hope they will continue to invest in our community,” Groce said.
What was Chick-fil-a planning in Collierville?
The proposed Chick-fil-a restaurant — located in the Cartwright Place Business Center — was to almost double the size of the current Collierville location at 1036 W. Poplar Ave.
Planning commission officials said the proposed Chick-fil-a was expected to be 6,110 square feet, while the present restaurant is 3,950 square feet. It was built in 2000.
“They (owners of Collierville Chickfil-a) had told us all along that they wanted to replace the existing store on (West) Poplar Avenue,” Groce said. “It’s older and has been there for a couple decades. It doesn’t meet their needs.”
The new restaurant was slated to have 72 parking spaces. Groce indicated the preliminary site plan also showed 16 future spaces, which could only be built if the town changes its maximum parking limit regulations for restaurants of this size.
Brent Edmiston, development director of Chick-fil-a, said at Monday’s meeting that the proposed larger Chick-fil-a was the first phase of its investment in Collierville. Edmiston noted there are plans to have other restaurants in Collierville because there is a market need for that. Chickfil-a had discussed in the past adding another location in Collierville at Wolf River Boulevard and Houston Levee Road. Edmiston said the plan is to have two to four Chick-fil-a restaurants down the road in Collierville.
“We have a project under contract that we actually filed a variance application for and was denied for parking several months ago,” Edmiston said. “We still have that under contract and are working with the developer on that site. We wanted to get through this project as a priority for us first before we make our next plan and movement in developing that project.”
Corey Davis is the Collierville and Germantown reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Corey.davis@commercialappeal.com or 901-293-1610.