Months after plans to build a Chick-fil-A in a North Jacksonville’s neighborhood appeared to go cold amid opposition from residents of the area, the property owner is trying again with what appears to be an identical plan to one city planners said a year ago they would recommend denying.
Property owner RBSSSS LLC has applied for rezoning to Planned Unit Development to allow construction of the double drive-thru restaurant on a vacant 1.39-acre site between Duval Station and Lady Lake roads near the Publix-anchored and -owned Duval Station Centre. Legislation on the rezoning, Ordinance 2023-0856, was filed in mid-December and has started making its way through the City Council legislative process.
RBSSSS is managed by Ramzy Bakkar, president of the Bakkar Group in Jacksonville Beach. Documents included in the rezoning application say the developer is Chick-fil-A in Atlanta.
Signs announcing notices of a public hearing on the application have been posted around the location. The hearing referenced on those signs is scheduled before the Jacksonville Planning Commission at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at City Hall, and homeowners in the adjacent North Creek neighborhood were also sent notice of a hearing before the Council’s Land Use and Zoning Committee at 5 p.m. Jan. 17.
In January 2023, Chick-fil-A confirmed it was planning to build a restaurant with a two-lane drive-thru at the site. The proposal alarmed residents, who raised concerns about traffic congestion and the safety of students at First Coast High School, which is across Duval Station Road from the site.
Tornald Hall, president of the North Creek Homeowners Association, said in a January 2024 email that neighbors continue to be concerned about those issues, and also believe the new restaurant could generate increased noise, trash and criminal activity.
Plans show customers would enter the Chick-fil-A from two entrances on Lady Lake Road. Access to Lady Lake Road is from the North Creek subdivision entrance on Bradley Cove Road to the west and through the Publix parking lot to the east.
Other concerns included the safety of students who board buses for magnet schools in the area, and access to the North Creek subdivision, which abuts the site. In 2019, a First Coast High student was struck by a car crossing Duval Station Road across from the Publix, prompting two crosswalks to be placed there.
Now with the project back in review, Hall said district Council member Reggie Gaffney Jr. has scheduled a meeting to discuss the restaurant at 6 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Oceanway Community Center, 12215 Sago Ave.
Gaffney said in an emailed statement that the property owner and agent had agreed to attend the meeting, and a flyer emailed to homeowners indicated that Chick-fil-A representatives would be there as well.
In February 2023, a similar gathering, also organized by Gaffney, drew more than 200 residents. At that time, Gaffney committed to facilitating a conversation between neighbors and Chick-fil-A, and said that if the company moved forward on the plan he would help lead a boycott of the location in solidarity with neighbors.
At the meeting, Folks Huxford, who at the time was chief of current planning for the city, told the meeting that the Planning Department would recommend denying the rezoning request. Huxford has since left the city and is now director of community development for Baker County.
The rezoning application from Chick-fil-A references a revised site plan, but it is unclear how that plan differs from the one unveiled in early 2023. Both plans appear similar, with no access to the fast-food restaurant from Duval Station Road and with two entrances on Lady Lake Road.
Bohler Engineering of Tampa is listed as the site engineer. The agent and attorney is listed as Sodl & Ingram PLLC.
Attorney Thomas Ingram declined to discuss the project when contacted in December.
The site previously had been approved in 2014 for a McDonald’s restaurant with a single-lane drive-thru with access from Duval Station Road. That restaurant was not built.