Upon request from one of its members, the Morgan Hill City Council will review the planning commission’s recent approval of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in town at an upcoming public hearing.
Councilmember Rene Spring asked for a council review of the Morgan Hill Planning Commission’s Sept. 26 approval of a conditional use permit and design permit for a Chick-fil-A proposed at the corner of Cochrane Road and Sutter Boulevard. The council’s review is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 15.
The planning commission’s approvals are suspended until the conclusion of the council’s review, according to city staff.
The city’s municipal code allows any member of the city council to call for a review of any decision made by the planning commission, without having to state a reason for such review. In this case, Spring said he has questions about the Chick-fil-A proposal that have so far been unanswered.
“There are some valid questions related to the project and its impact on traffic and the neighbors, and I want to make sure it’s clearly understood,” Spring said.
The planning commission approved the Chick-fil-A proposal on Sept. 26 on a 5-1 vote, with one member absent. Commission Chair Wayne Tanda voted against the project due to an ongoing disagreement between the Chick-fil-A developer and a neighboring property owner who is worried about the impact of cut-through traffic in their parking lot.
Joanne Conca, one of the owners of an office building in the adjacent Evergreen Village shopping center, told the commission Sept. 26 that she and Chick-fil-A’s representatives have discussed her concerns but no resolution has been achieved. Specifically, Conca is worried that “a significant amount of Chick-fil-A” patrons will enter her property from Jarvis Drive, increasing traffic through her parking lot as motorists attempt to avoid a stop sign and other congestion that will be created by the new restaurant on Sutter Boulevard, Conca wrote in a Feb. 9 email to the commission.
The fast-food restaurant is proposed on a 1.63-acre site that houses the building formerly occupied by Marie Callender’s and Forbes Grill restaurants. Chick-fil-A is proposed as a 5,000-square foot restaurant with about 74 interior dining seats, an outdoor patio that can accommodate up to 20 patrons and a two-lane drive-thru with a queuing capacity of about 55 vehicles, according to a city staff report.
Seriously, after building so many warehouses in Morgan Hill, the city delaying the construction of Chic-fil-A ? this is a joke.