Residents fear traffic spike in Huber Heights

Chick-fil-A study says new store will have minor impact.

HUBER HEIGHTS — With Chickfil-A’s recent announcement that it will open at an already busy intersection in Huber Heights, many residents are concerned about traffic, but the fast food chicken chain did a traffic study that found traffic in the area will increase only minimally.

Chick-fil-A plans to start building the new restaurant in late summer at 8120 Old Troy Pike. It is scheduled to open in January 2021.

The restaurant chain plans to tear down the existing building on the lot, Osaka Japanese Steakhouse, and build a new building.

Chick-fil-A conducted a traffic study that found during peak hours, about 1,021 cars were typically on Old Troy Pike. Of those already existing vehicles, about 50 would choose to turn into Chick-fil-A. An additional 50 not already on the road would also make their way to Chick-fil-A.

So, about half of Chick-fil-A’s

traffic will be people already driving by, or “pass-through traffic” that already exists on the roadway.

Overall traffic in the area will only increase by about 5%, said Scott Falkowski, assistant city manager.

The study analyzed traf- fic at “peak times,” from 7 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

Chick-fil-A found that on an average day, there will be about 200 “trip ins” during morning and 164 trips into the restaurant in the evening.

There will be room in the drive-thru lanes to “stack” 22 cars, according to site plans. There is also additional room in the drive-thru entrance and Chick-fil-A’s parking lot for 38 total cars to be able to line up for the drive-thru, so drive-thru traffic shouldn’t spill out into the main road, Falkowski said.

Falkowski said Chick-fil-A predicts traffic during the grand opening of the fast food restaurant will be more hectic than the study found an average day to be. Chick- fil-A will also see more traffic than normal during the winter holiday season, he said.

“From a business per- spective, if I’m a business, I would want my business to go where there is already a lot of traffic,” said Huber Heights Mayor Jeff Gore. “So I understand people’s concerns and frustrations about traffic and those issues, but from a business perspec- tive, I think it makes complete sense.”

The wait to turn out of Chick-fil-A will remain at a Level C.

The standard is based on the delay time at an intersection. A Level C intersection sees drivers wait for about 22 seconds, Falkow- ski said. A typical red light stops drivers for about half a minute, he said.

At Level A intersections, drivers wait less than 10 seconds. Falkowski said that when average wait times are 35 seconds or greater, engi- neers should make changes to the intersection.

“Once (Chick-fil-A) opens, we will continue to look at the intersection of Execu- tive and Old Troy to see if we can calibrate the light there,” Falkowski said. “We are doing whatever we can to ensure the best flow in traffic.”

Huber Heights also recently announced that it will be getting a Starbucks and Raising Cane’s.