Taco Bell Drive-Thru Plan Raises Parking, Traffic Concerns In Fairfax

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City planning commissioners expressed concerns about a pre-application proposal Monday evening from ABTB Mid-Atlantic, LLC to construct a Taco Bell restaurant with a drive-thru in the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center.

Monday night's presentation was a chance for the planning commissioners to provide feedback about the proposal, before the developer submits a formal application with the city.

Some commissioners said the new Taco Bell would likely experience the same traffic and parking issues already observed at similar drive-thru restaurants along Fairfax Boulevard.

"At this location, I think the biggest concern is going to be backup of the drive-thru lane and that will also impact parking, because cars will be stacked up in the parking lot," Commissioner Kirsten Lockhart said.

Referencing the long backups seen at the Chick-fil-a restaurant and Starbucks on Fairfax Boulevard, she suggested the applicant submit information, if possible, about expected walk-in traffic compared to drive-thru usage to help the city understand possible parking impacts.

Planning Commissioner Amir Eftekhari said that because of the "picky palates" of his children he was a frequent visitor to the restaurants already located in the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center.

"I would hope that everyone could go out to that shopping center starting at Friday at 6 p.m. till about Sunday 6 p.m., because you have a 7-Eleven there that's quite busy," he said. "You have an ABC store that's extremely busy on the weekends. You have a Korean barbecue spot that you have to wait at least 10 to 15 minutes to find a parking spot to open up."

Planning Commissioner Paul Cunningham noted that when the shopping center was first proposed, the site in question was separated from the rest of the center because it was going to be used for a drive-thru bank. One of the requirements from the bank was that it needed to own the property it was located on, so the city agreed to subdivide the development.

Cunnigham's point was that the occasional traffic a bank's drive-thru window experiences is very different than that of a busy restaurant like Chick-fil-a.

The developer proposes building a one-story, 2,256-square-foot building on two vacant lots at 10120 Fairfax Blvd. The property is located between Patient First and 7-Eleven, according to the proposal.

The adjacent parking lot would accommodate 13 stacking parking spaces and the drive-thru lane, which would wrap around the building and parking area. The site include 21 parking spaces, of which eight are shared with other shopping center tenants. Bicycle parking and an outdoor patio area will also be provided.

The overall property is about 0.66 acres in size and currently zoned commercial residential with proffers in the Architectural Control Overlay District.

In 2008, the Fairfax City Council approved the generalized development plan for the shopping center to include a drive-thru bank at the site where the proposed Taco Bell would be located.

In 2011, the council subdivided the shopping center into two separate parcels, which included the bank site. The council then approved a GDP amendment in 2017 to change the previously approved bank site to allow for the construction of an approximately 5,100-square-foot retail building. Since then, the property has sat vacant.

In order for the ABTB Mid-Atlantic's proposal to be approved, the developer would require amendments for both a rezoning and a change to the GDP, according to the staff report submitted Monday night.

In addition, the developer would also need a special use permit for the drive-thru facility, a Major Certificate of Appropriateness with recommendations from the Board of Architectural Review, and approval from the city council.

ABTB Mid-Atlantic's next step will be to present its proposal in a pre-application meeting on March 4, followed by a potential application submission. Once that happens, the proposal will go through the city's development review process, which will include work sessions and public hearings.