A proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant that has drawn opposition from residents in a North Jacksonville neighborhood returns to the agenda of the City Council Land Use and Zoning Committee on June 4 after being deferred for consideration of a traffic study.
Plans for the restaurant, which would be located near First Coast High School along Duval Station Road, have prompted dozens of residents of the North Creek subdivision and nearby communities to turn out to Council and community meetings to express concerns that it would create traffic congestion, reduce traffic safety, block access to the subdivision and would be too close to nearby homes, among other issues.
Most recently, the proposed restaurant was the subject of a May 20 community meeting focused on the 658-page traffic study.
The LUZ committee will hold a public hearing solely on the traffic study at its June 4 meeting, then will consider whether to recommend approval of an ordinance that would rezone the property to allow for construction of the restaurant. The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at City Hall.
If the LUZ votes in favor of the legislation, Ordinance 2023-0856, it would go to the full City Council for a vote.
The traffic study projected that the restaurant would generate 4,482 vehicle trips a day – cars arriving and leaving – but that would have a “nominal impact on traffic operations.” The city is requiring a new traffic light at Bradley Cove and Duval Station roads with a continuous right-turn lane into the restaurant, which will have a double drive-thru.
Access to the restaurant along Duval Station Road is from Lady Lake Drive. Customers arriving by car would enter via the North Creek subdivision entrance on Bradley Cove Road or through the neighboring Publix Super Markets shopping center parking lot.
Chick-fil-A unveiled its plan to build a restaurant with a two-lane drive-thru at the site in early 2023. The plan appeared to evaporate after neighbors organized in opposition of the project, with more than 100 of them gathering at the February 2023 meeting.
In December 2023, Chick-fil-A returned with a plan that appeared to be nearly identical to the previous version.
Property owner RBSSSS LLC has applied to rezone the land as Planned Unit Development to allow construction of the restaurant on the vacant site near the Publix-owned Duval Station Centre.