When is Chik-Fil-A coming?
A Grade 6 class that hosted a visit from Mayor Cathy Heron managed to get their burning question into a public hearing into St. Albert’s draft Land Use Bylaw Oct. 15.
Ray Watkins, appearing on behalf of Landrex, said unless city council decides to allow drive-thrus in East Village, the answer could be never.
He said three restaurants hoping to operate in the development at the north end of St. Albert Trail, including the popular chicken joint, a Chipotle and a Waves Coffee House may find homes elsewhere if they aren’t able to have a drive-thru.
"The deals are probably lost if it's gone today," the former city councillor said. "I'm not too sure why you would want to pass the bylaw without looking at some of these amendments first."
The companies entered into agreement with Landrex on the assumption that drive-thru would be permitted since there are already 25 of them on St. Albert Trail, according to Watkins. The rub? East Village is zoned DCMU, which does not allow drive-thru, the other shops are Trail Corridor Commercial, which does.
On paper, East Village is cut up in five: Two zones on the southwest abutting the Trail that host most of the commercial space, and three to the east, or the “back,” which are mostly residential. Currently, the land is regulated as one DCMU parcel. Under the city's new overarching Land Use Bylaw, it will be zoned MU-2, which also outlaws drive-thru.
Watkins said if city council didn't see fit to change the MU-2 class to allow drive-thru, an acceptable alternative would be to have the new LUB classify the front two zones as Corridor Commercial, and leave the residential zones MU-2.
Either way, Watkins didn’t say when exactly Chik-Fil-A may land in St. Albert, only that without a drive-thru solution in place, it may fly the coop entirely.
The consensus on city council was that it would be more appropriate for the developer to submit a formal application to the city for the zoning change needed to allow drive-thrus in East Village, which a staffer pointed out was envisioned as a human-scaled, walkable neighbourhood in terms of access to commercial areas, than for them to carve out an allowance for a single development during the LUB approval process.
This would also give staff the time and resources to properly assess what impact allowing three drive-thru restaurants on that site would have.
Councillors voted unanimously to advance the new LUB through second and third readings with no drive-thrus in the MU-2 zone.
