Ottawa councillor ‘nervous’ about traffic impacts of new Chick-fil-A

It was a busy day for Ottawa’s newest Chick-fil-A. As CTV’s Peter Szperling reports, the city is considering a new approach to handle busy drive-thrus.

As Ottawa’s newest Chick-fil-A location is about to open, an Ottawa councillor is worried about potential traffic disruptions and wants the city to take a closer overall look at drive-thrus.

“I have been nervous about this file since I first learned about it, just because of the traffic impacts,” Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts told CTV News Ottawa. “Because of the popularity that we’ve seen elsewhere in the city.”

U.S.-based fast food chain Chick-fil-A announced it will be opening its new restaurant located at 4280 Innes Rd. on June 25.

The locally owned and operated store will be Canada’s 30^th Chick-fil-A location and third in Ottawa, including one in the Rideau Centre and another at Tanger Outlets in Kanata.

According to Kitts, she has worked with both Chick-fil-A and city staff to improve the design of the location and better manage traffic flow, even before the restaurant opens,

“I am advising residents that we did do significant proactive work to try and limit the impact, but that we are still worried about a further back up on to Innes Road.”

Chick-fil-A says there will be paid duty police officers, private security and signage throughout the plaza for the opening. To speed up the ordering process, employees of the restaurant will also be walking up to vehicles in the drive-thru to take customer orders on tablets.

Kitts says the original application plan included 11 spaces for cars in the drive-thru, but the size of the drive-thru was increased.

“We pushed back – they are including 36; and then we requested a traffic control plan that allows them to do 100 spaces for cars to queue beyond that,” Kitts said.

Kitts says even with the expanded layout, “we are still worried about backing up on Innes Road, which is a major arterial — a lifeline in the community.”

During Thursday’s opening, CTV News observed approximately 30 cars in the drive-thru line during the lunch hour. The overflow area, meant to accommodate 100 cars, did not have any waiting. Shortly before opening at 10:30 am, there were around a dozen cars waiting. Cars appeared to flow smoothly through the drive-thru throughout the morning.

Aleisha Jones was the first one to arrive at the drive-thru on Thursday.

“I thought there would be a whole stream of people, but I was lucky enough to get the first part,” she said.

Jones says the experience was smooth, with signage indicating where to enter, exit and wait.

Review in the works

Kitts says she would like the city to take a look at how drive-thrus across the city are planned overall, and not just on a “ad hoc” basis.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Kitts announced, “that City staff are now moving forward with a comprehensive review of drive-thru facilities, examining everything from where they should be permitted to how they are designed and how they interact with surrounding roads, sidewalks, cyclists, pedestrians, and neighbouring properties.”

An example of another business in her ward causing traffic concerns is the Halo Car Wash in Orléans Village. According to Kitts, during the winter there were vehicles queueing on arterial roads.

“The Halo group said that it was the busiest location that they had. We are working with them to see if we can amend their site plan to allow for another lane,” Kitts told CTV News.

Halo Car Wash declined to comment for this story.

Kitts says this is not a call to ban drive-thrus, but to take a look in their design,

“I just think it needs to be when you have a drive through that’s going to be very popular, and there is an expectation that it may spill out from their own property. I don’t think it’s fair to impact municipal infrastructure,” she said.

“So I think that’s where the city has a role in ensuring that the policy allows for the drive through, but also allows for sufficient space so that we’re not impacting major arterials.”

A fourth Chick-fil-A location is planned for College Square to replace the Beer Store outlet, according to an application filed with the City of Ottawa, though no official opening date has been announced.

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