The Walnut Creek City Council this week approved a new Chick-fil-A restaurant on the corner of Oak Grove Road and Citrus Avenue with one big concession to neighbors: no drive thru.
After more than five hours of testimony, the council denied a neighbor’s appeal of the city’s planning commission approval of the restaurant, planned for the Citrus Marketplace Shopping Center.
But the council did so only by mitigating neighbors’ concerns about traffic and noise by ruling out drive-thru service, which is unusual for the popular chain restaurant. Walnut Creek already has one Chick-fil-A on North Main Street, south of Geary Boulevard, that has been the subject of complaints because cars in its drive-thru line often spill out onto North Main Street.
The new restaurant will feature only dine-in or takeout. The 5,300-square-foot franchise will replace a vacant 8,200-square-foot building in the shopping center that has seen many vacancies in recent years.
The project was reviewed by the city’s design review commission in 2023 and approved by the planning commission in March 2024.
The resident of the nearby Woodlands neighborhood who filed the appeal cited a variety of concerns, with potential traffic issues being the most significant.
The city commissioned a licensed traffic engineering firm to evaluate the concerns about the impact to neighborhood traffic. They compared data based upon other Chick-fil-A locations, as well as evaluating current conditions at the intersection. Two other shopping centers are in the same area.
City staff said the project met all of the zoning requirements for the shopping center. The council also adopted requirements to monitor and improve traffic and congestion issues, if necessary.
18 comments
I’ve Two Bits that says Chick… declines
They could try some pickup parking spaces for online orders only…. but no matter what they do they are going to be very busy. If I was the guy deciding I’d tell Walnut Creek snobbies to stuff it.
There will be a lot of traffic there and it will still be crowded.
Gee thanks, neighborhood residents, you earned us a crappy neutered Chick-fil-A. It can join all the other wonderful stuff in that strip mall, like vacant storefronts, an overpriced gym, and some chain stores. Next time just leave it alone.
Hello, gridlock my old friend……..
No surprise…. city councils go through the motions to they they’ve solicited neighborhood input…. plan was always for no drive thru
Why do they put them in same mall as the new gym. The one in downtown WC is a disaster for gym goers as the fatty fried chicken crowd takes up all parking spaces during prime time. Looks like same going to happen to the new gym that’s going up in same mall.
As for North Main, lot that it sits on is too small to efficiently accommodate drive thru.
Am surprised those running WC were not smart enough to figure that out.
WC needs to give person evaluating traffic impacts, additional training as well as additional supervision.
An city council needs to smarten up, did they even take time go out and look at the location???
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Neighbors will regret not having the drive thru.
Oak Grove end of that shopping center is a friggin’ ghost town and could very easily handle drive thru without blocking Oak Grove traffic, IF, cars leaving drive thru were directed to exit onto Citrus which has a stop lights that would regulate traffic flow.
ORIGINAL G,
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Just like the Concord City Council’s inability to say “no” to any business/developer who comes to town, the Walnut Creek City Council appears to be the same.
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Unlike the Concord City Council, the Walnut Creek City Council appears to have listened to their residents living in the surrounding neighborhood who didn’t want a drive-thru at this location. If the Carl’s Jr at this location had a drive-thru it may have survived.
Expect more crime in that area. Chick Fil A attracts the undesirable.
Enough with the fast food already!
Hey now, I resemble that remark!
How about a Soul Food restaurant Auntie?
Would that be ok?
That is a possibility, especially since some kids from Ygjnacio Valley High School will Kiley go there after football 🏈 and basketball 🏀 games on Friday nights, and from what I understand, YVHS kids today are known to be quite rough
The place is played out. It had its run. Too bad these cities are so behind the times.
Chick-fil-A is so good. This is the best thing that ever happened to that shopping center.
I believe Chick-fil-A’s current Walnut Creek location on N. Main Street is fantastic. Traffic could back up for nearly a mile on the street with next to zero impact. The location is also well away from residential neighborhoods. In-N-Out tried to build in that area but were shot down as the two spots they had in mind were both on the southbound side of N. Main and would have created a huge impact on the residential neighborhoods to the west of N. Main, both for traffic and the greasy smoke smell these places generate.
I don’t think I’d want to live downwind of a Chick fil A….
It smells great!
I’d be down there buying fried chicken all the time.
I believe it’s one of those things where when you are first hit with the smell that it’s great. When you wake up and realize the smell is everywhere then it may not seem so great. The phrase “endorphin rush” comes to mind but Google shows it’s not typically associated with food cooking smells. Maybe we enjoy a whiff of the volatiles that come from cooking while ignoring that they are a component of air pollution. Some people thrive on the smell of Napalm in the morning…
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