Supervisors Approve Kingstowne Chick-fil-A Drive-Thru Restaurant

KINGSTOWNE, VA — On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors gave approval to a Chick-fil-A with a drive-thru and seating indoors and outdoors at Kingstowne Towne Center.

The 5,200-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru is planned at 5810 Kingstowne Center, Suite 160 (Building D) on the north side of Kingstowne Boulevard and west side of South Van Dorn Street. Chick-fil-A will occupy a vacant space formerly occupied by a restaurant at the end of the building. The building hosts other businesses such as Dairy Queen, a UPS store and Subway.

The approval increases the number of permitted restaurants with drive-thrus at Kingstowne Towne Center from two to three. The other two drive-thrus are Burger King and Taco Bell at Building F of Kingstowne Towne Center. County staff said in a report that the drive-thru is not expected to conflict with the other drive-thrus given the distance between them.

At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk asked about the traffic movement as well as the stacking area for customer queues. He cited the example of another nearby Chick-fil-A with backup concerns, the Backlick Road location in Springfield.

Brian Clifford, a representative for the applicant, told supervisors insufficient stacking area causes backups into the parking lot and occasionally toward Backlick Road. He said there is more stacking area planned for the Kingstowne location.

"We have almost triple the number of stacking spaces here," said Clifford. "We have 35 spaces proposed here to handle at peak capacity with team members at Chick-fil-A staffing that outer lane to make sure the traffic is moving efficiently."

The restaurant will be accessible through existing access points at Kingstowne Towne Center. The drive-thru pickup window will be located at the rear of the building, and customers will have dual drive-thru lanes to order. The drive-thru will run one way behind Building D, and signage will encourage customers to exit left rather than heading toward where traffic comes in from South Van Dorn Street.

Chairman Jeff McKay, who used to represent the Lee District, acknowledged the importance of the questions about traffic.

"As that area well knows, the location in Springfield creates quite a problem, and we certainly want to set an example here of how that can be done much better," said McKay.

Before the vote, Lusk noted that the 35-car stacking area at the drive-thru exceeds the 11 normally required with this use.

"Based on the question and answer we just had with the applicant's representative on transportation and understanding that considerable thought has been given to address the flow of traffic into and out of the site, I'm comfortable that we should not experience the same traffic issues that we've seen at the other Chick-fil-A location," said Lusk.

The county's staff report indicated the project will require a redesign of parking field adjacent to the end-cap space to allow for the safe flow of traffic. New crosswalks are planned between parking and the restaurant.

Chick-fil-A also plans to renovate the interior. The restaurant expects to have 110 indoor seats and 54 outdoor seats. Proposed hours are Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays.

Based on other area restaurants, Chick-fil-A estimated around 1,300 customers per day, which includes around 800 using the drive-thru.