Barbec’s on Garland Road. Photo by Renee Umsted.
Editor’s note (7:30 a.m. July 22): This story has been updated with information from a memo Paula Blackmon wrote to T.C. Broadnax on July 21. City Attorney Tammy Palomino, Assistant City Manager Robert Perez and Julia Ryan, the director of Planning and Urban Design, were copied on the memo.Â
A restaurant with a drive-thru is possible for the old Barbec’s site, but it’s “not what is needed” for the area, District 9 City Council member Paula Blackmon wrote in a newsletter on Friday.
Permit applications have been submitted to build and operate a restaurant with a drive-thru at the old Barbec’s site. Popeyes is the name of the business listed on the permits.
The property, located at 8949 Garland Road near White Rock Lake, is zoned community retail.
That zoning district allows many uses by right, such as catering services, tool or equipment rentals, child care and adult day care facilities, offices, dry-cleaning stores, motor vehicle fueling stations and pawn shops, to name a few.
A restaurant with a drive-thru is also allowed by right, but with a Development Impact Review.
According to the newsletter from Blackmon, whose district includes the Barbec’s site, a Development Impact Review is performed by the traffic engineer. The building inspection department will review plans to make sure they are not “unnecessarily impactful” on infrastructure such as streets. The applicant could be required to reorient driveways or speaker boxes, for example. But the department could not “refuse outright to permit the use.”
“While restaurant with drive-thru is allowed by right, which means that the building official must issue the permits for construction and operation if the use complies with the Codes, a drive-thru establishment is not what is needed on this corridor that the City is working to improve,” Blackmon wrote in the newsletter. “I will be working with staff to see what can be done to amend the zoning within this corridor going forward to prevent these types of uses in the future, and I am happy to meet with the applicant at any time to discuss further community concerns, including the drive-thru aspect of the use.”
Blackmon also sent a memo to City Manager T.C. Broadnax, saying that a popular food chain with a drive-thru would make walking on the sidewalks along Garland Road more dangerous, increase traffic and delays and make it harder for people who live along the corridor to enter and exit their homes and neighborhoods.
“It is my hope staff will see what chaos and obstacles will be created by adding another drive-thru to this corridor,” Blackmon said in the memo. “Please let the planning process continue to find the highest and best use for properties along Garland Road through community discussion.”
When the Advocate wrote about the Chick-fil-A on Garland Road at Old Gate Lane, just north of the Barbec’s site, we received mixed reviews on our Facebook page. Some readers commented, “So exciting! Welcome to the neighborhood!” Others, though, said, “Waste of space.”
Neighbors have provided a ton of feedback following news of a possible Popeyes at the Barbec’s site, too. Some have complained of yet another national chain or fast-food restaurant coming to the area. The Barbec’s Restaurant founders, Barry and Becky Brown, weighed in.
But there have been other concerns with a drive-thru at the site. Readers have noted the frequency of vehicular crashes at the Garland-Old Gate intersection. They’ve commented on the need for emergency vehicles to gain access to the Autumn Leaves assisted living facility, White Rock Lake Park and the other residences near the Garland-Emerald Isle intersection, saying that a drive-thru and the anticipated traffic congestion associated with it could cause problems.
At this point, no permits have been issued. But stakeholders have taken their stance on the possibility of a drive-thru restaurant at an iconic neighborhood location on a regularly discussed corridor.
