City council hears debate over traffic woes at Cotswold Chick-fil-A

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - If you live in the Cotswold area or if you’ve been to any fast-food restaurant, you know you may need to wait a while or that traffic could spill out onto the side of the road.

That’s the case for a Chick-fil-A in Cotswold and the center of discussion at a Charlotte City Council zoning meeting on Monday.

At the meeting, a Chick-fil-A representative said they have a solution: tear down Chick-fil-A as it is and build a drive-thru-only restaurant to cut down on traffic and make it safer for neighbors and pedestrians.

Restaurant owner Tammy Porter says they’ve seen the benefits of switching to drive-thru only.

“It’s been amazing,” Porter said. “It’s helped tremendously with getting the food out quicker and faster.”

One neighbor says this plan plus an added stop light on Randolph Road will make the process fast and easy, especially with customers already predominantly using the drive-thru anyway.

“As someone who just voted to approve the $146 million transportation bond, I urge you to prioritize and fully fund this street improvement project in Cotswold,” Liana Humphrey said, urging the drive-thru-only plan.

Others say this could actually increase the number of cars and neglect the needs of bikers.

“It really is a multifaceted issue. It’s going to affect your city financially and it’s going to affect the safety of people on the street,” John Holmes said on Zoom.

“If the council approves this zoning request, they will be admitting they are completely turning their back on the people who either choose not to do or cannot make a car their main mode of transportation,” Rui Elkins added at the council meeting.

With council members asking for more data and questioning if this would even improve the traffic situation, no decision on rezoning was made Monday. The council could sometime before the year ends.

Copyright 2022 WBTV. All rights reserved.