By Danielle Coots
For the News-Current
BEAVERCREEK — Council took the first steps to allow a well-known chicken establishment to break grown in Beavercreek.
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers presented a detailed site plan Monday for approval to build a location just south of the Speedway gas station located at the intersection of North Fairfield Road and Kemp Road. The city approved the first reading after hearing public input.
Raising Cane is planning on constructing a 3,576 square foot restaurant on a 1.16 acre that will serve fresh, made-to-order chicken strips. They are known for their “fresh and never frozen” chicken. The chicken is delivered three to four times a week and is purchased from a local farm in Cincinnati. Their sauces are made fresh daily in each store. The only item on the menu that will be found to be frozen are the pre-cut potatoes for the fries. They consider the business to be quick service and not a fast food chain.
Due to the current access point to Speedway and the close proximity of the traffic stop at the intersection at North Fairfield and Kemp Roads, an access to Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers will not be available on North Fairfield Road. Instead, an access will be constructed off of Kemp Road, just past Speedway. There will not be a connection to the restaurant through the Speedway parking lot due to the fact that Speedway has declined to give permission for such access due to safety concerns.
Residents from the adjacent neighborhood voiced their concerns regarding increased traffic, noise and the desire to have a fence barrier instead of a mounding system that has been proposed.
Though the concerns were taken into consideration by city council members, as Debborah Wallace pointed out, the city cannot control who purchases property or control how it is used, but with the ASRA provision, they are able to control certain aspects of the design plan and attempt to limit the impact to the residents as much as possible.
In the end, in addition to the 18 conditions recommended by the Planning Commission, the city council members added three additional conditions before approving the site plan. The additional conditions included adding an awning over the drive-thru window, placing an indirect lighting sign system to the back of the building, and provide finished grade paving to the access road to the first 100 feet to allow for the additional weight of the delivery trucks. Conditions that were recommended by the Planning Commission included the normal provisions regarding landscaping, elevations, signage, lighting, outside appearance, trash and debris, etc.
This was the first reading and it will move onto the second during the next scheduled council meeting scheduled 6 p.m. Jan. 23 in the Council Chambers room on the second floor.
