Fairfield Chick-fil-A Denied By Zoning Officials

FAIRFIELD, CT — Plans for a Chick-fil-A in Fairfield will not move forward after zoning officials unanimously denied the proposal Tuesday, citing traffic concerns.

“It’s definitely out of scale and out of harmony to our downtown area,” zoning commissioner Kathryn Braun said.

Property owner 750 Post Road Associates LLC sought a special permit and coastal site plan from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission to construct the 5,000-square-foot restaurant and drive-thru on an approximately 2-acre site at 750 Post Road and 42 Eliot St. The land was formerly occupied by Joe's American Bar & Grill and Colonial Unisex Hair Cutters.

The commission received more than 200 emails and testimonials from the public over the course of four hearings on the proposal.

“People don’t want any more traffic downtown,” Secretary Meg Francis said, noting the property had been home to sit-down restaurants for 60 years and that she felt Chick-fil-A belonged directly on a highway rather than at a site near an interstate exit.

The Fairfield plan included a two-lane drive-thru with a capacity for 36 cars. Another eight vehicles would have been able to overflow into the parking lot, which would have had 76 spaces. About 2,000 vehicles pass the property during peak traffic hours. The developer had proposed a time adjustment to the nearby traffic signal at Post and Benson roads.

Commissioner Lenny Braman noted that there had been 119 crashes in the area in the last four years, that Chick-fil-A had provided inconsistent data for projected mid-Saturday traffic, and that customer vehicles sometimes backed up onto municipal roads at other Connecticut Chick-fil-A locations.

The prospect of such congestions was a source of concern for commissioner Thomas Noonan.

“The chance that there’s any queuing that backs up on Post Road is unacceptable,” he said.

Saturday peak traffic estimates provided by Chick-fil-A ranged from 254 trips to 333 trips.

Chair Matthew Wagner put forth the idea of limiting how far into the parking lot the drive-thru line could extend, but his compromise did not generate much enthusiasm among the other commissioners.

Commissioner Steven Levy recused himself from the vote.