Chick-fil-A submitted plans in late 2013 to build a restaurant on the corner of Sepulveda and Manchester at the site of the old Grinder Restaurant. The KHG Architectural Committee responded that the building did not meet the sloped roof requirement of the KHG DPRs. Other issues of concern were noted such as number of parking spaces, traffic back up onto Manchester, left turns from Manchester, noise from order boxes, the lack of a lighting plan, and fumes. These are issues KHG cannot enforce, but the Architectural Committee brought them to the attention of Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A presented revised plans at the Neighborhood Council of Westchester/Playa (NCWP) Planning and Land Use Committee (PLUC) meeting in April. The revised plans addressed these issues including reduced square footage and indoor seating, decreased speaker noise by moving the speaker to a more interior location in the drive-through, securing employee parking in an off-site location, parking monitors to keep traffic moving through the parking lot and drive-through, shielded lighting so as not to affect neighbors, and special exhaust venting to decrease fumes, among other concessions. PLUC approved the project to move forward to the full NCWP for consideration.
At the April KHG Board meeting the Board waived the sloped roof requirement of the KHG DPRs based on the fact that this Chick-fil-A restaurant is a commercial development, it is not located directly in a Kentwood neighborhood, and is not adjacent to single-family residences.
KHG members will have the opportunity to address any concerns they may have with this project at the NCWP meeting when it is on their agenda.
-Maria Warner, Architectural Committee