Controversial Restaurant Wants To Open Drive-Thru in Framingham

Georgia-based Chick-fil-A wants to construct a drive-thru location in the Shoppers World complex in Framingham.

The controversial quick-serve restaurant chain submitted an application with the Framingham Planning Board for a 4,779 square foot location next to Kohl’s department store.

The fast-food chicken restaurant chain does not open any of 1,850 locations in 41 states on Sunday, due to religious reasons. The chain had annual sales of more than $5 billion in 2013.

In 2012, the late Thomas Menino, as mayor of Bostom wrote a letter to the owner of Chick-fil-A stating he personally was not interested in the chain coming to Boston. In 2012, Menino wrote opening a Chick-fil-A restaurant across the street from City Hall was “an insult to [same-sex couples] and to our city’s long history of expanding freedom.”

“We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles,” Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dan Cathy said to a Baptist publication.

In 2012, there were LGBT sit-ins in Chick-fil-A sites across the country. The controversy has subsided since, as the company has chosen to focus on its chicken and not its religious views, although stores are still closed on Sundays so employees can attend church. Chick-fil-A is still privately held and family owned.

The proposed Framingham location would be located in the northeast corner of the Kohl’s shopping area. Access to the new restaurant would be through the Kohl’s parking lot, although the restaurant would be visible from Route 30.

The restaurant would be able to seat 128 patrons plus an additional dozen patrons in a patio area.

Twenty-five parking space would be lost in the Kohl’s lot with the proposed construction of the restaurant.

The application said the restaurant would not have an impact on traffic in the business-zoned area.

Fiscal impact, according to the application said the Town of Framingham would “receive substantial direct and
indirect financial benefits. Direct benefits will be in the nature of increased employment, tax revenue, filing fees and building permit fees.”

The “value of the land will not change with the construction of the new Chick-fil-A Restaurant. As a result of the construction, the building value on the Premises will increase based upon the cost of construction. Based upon the cost of construction of $100 per foot, the value of the site will increase by $477,900.00 upon completion of
the construction. Over a 5-year period, there will be an increase in tax revenue received of over $112,000,” stated the application.

An application for a special permit was filed with the Framingham Planning Board on Dec. 17, by Framingham attorney Peter Barbieri.

A public hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015.

The applicant is looking for a special permit for a drive-thru plus a special permit to reduce the number of required parking spaces.

Chick-fil-A, in its application, said the new location would bring 12 permanent jobs and 10 part-time jobs.

Near Framingham, there are Chick-fil-A location in Westborough and in the Burlington Mall.

Chick-fil-A started in 1946, when Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant, Dwarf Grill, in Hapeville, Georgia.

Credited with inventing Chick-fil-A’s boneless breast of chicken sandwich, Mr. Cathy founded Chick-fil-A, Inc. in the early 1960s and pioneered the establishment of restaurants in shopping malls with the opening of the first Chick-fil-A Restaurant at a mall in suburban Atlanta in 1967, according to the Chick-fil-A website.

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Originally posted at 2 a.m. Updated at 3:30 to fix a typo.

Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A web site