Imperial Drive access fight leads to plan commission denial; engineering director says road will open regardless
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Chicken lovers will have to do without a fourth chicken restaurant near the busiest intersection in the city, at least for now. The Kokomo Plan Commission rejected the development plan for Chick-fil-A on Jan. 15, leaving the future of the restaurant in question.
Chick-fil-A has faced staunch opposition from the moment it announced plans to open a store in front of Hobby Lobby along Ind. 931 near the intersection with SR 22. The lot is one of the most difficult in the city to navigate, particularly when leaving, as traffic is oppressively congested in the area.
But it is the city's stated intention to open Imperial Drive, which abuts the south end of the lot, that has the local community up in arms. That plan, it appears, spelled doom for the project.
As has happened each time Chick-fil-A came before the plan commission, the residents of the nearby Cedar Crest subdivision showed up to voice their opposition. And their arguments against the project were unchanged.
They don't want Imperial Drive opened to access the parking lot.
Foremost among the remonstrators was Jeffrey Cowell, who lives in the last house along Imperial Drive, adjacent to the parking lot. With no small amount of anger, the resident addressed the board.
"I'm at ground zero," said Cowell. "My house is the one that's going to be affected the most by everything that's going on. My property values will be destroyed. My yard is going to be trash. I mean, it's ridiculous."
Plan commission president Mike Besser responded by bringing up an anecdote involving a possible court ruling decades earlier that prevented Imperial Drive from being opened to the parking lot.
"At the very first meeting, I had a young gentleman come up to me, and he said, 'My dad and my grandpa went to a court hearing, and they said this could never happen,'" said Besser. "I told that young man at the time, if that's a true story, you need to talk to your family members and other people and find out when and who did that and get that information and bring it forward. I have yet to hear anything."
That was the opening Cowell needed, as it was his family that filed the lawsuit to prevent Imperial Drive's extension decades ago.
"I can tell you it was filed by Wilbur G. Cowell, 1200 Imperial Drive," said Cowell. "It was filed May 12, 1969. There was a disposition of it on August 12, 1969. I do not have the case yet, and I do not have the cause number. But you will receive them as soon as I get them."
Homeowner Sheila Off, who lives nearby along Belvedere Drive, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the development, arguing that diverting traffic through the Cedar Crest subdivision would be injurious to the residents. She was incensed because Chick-fil-A had disclosed last year that it wasn't interested in opening Imperial Drive. Yet the issue remains.
"I just want to believe what Chick-fil-A said last year," said Off. "Leave our residential neighborhood alone. It's been there longer than Chick-fil-A has had chickens."
Kokomo Director of Engineering Jon Pyke had bad news for Off and the Cedar Crest residents.
"I just need to put this out there at this point: we are not voting tonight whether or not there's a connection to Imperial Drive," said Pyke. "Chances are that connection is happening, regardless of the vote tonight ... It makes sense for the City of Kokomo to make that connection, like, tomorrow."
Pyke stood on this claim, explaining that his job is to find ways to alleviate traffic flow onto Markland Avenue -- near the busiest intersection in the city. As such, Imperial Drive offers a way for him to do that.
The remonstration continued, and one resident asked why Chick-fil-A chose the Sandor lot for development instead of another location along Ind. 931 or SR 22. Brian Kaiser, civil engineer for the project, responded.
"They have the intention that this would be the first Chick-fil-A open in Kokomo, but they would like to have more than one, if at all possible," said Kaiser. "Certainly, they have explored other options, but this is the primary right now."
After the remonstrators finished their comments, the plan commission took a vote, and the tally ended in a 4-4 tie, requiring Besser to cast the deciding vote. He voted no, killing the Chick-fil-A project, at least for now.
This caused a representative for Chick-fil-A to approach the board.
"We indicated the connection to Imperial was at the request of the city," said the representative. "Now that the plat was denied, most likely because of the connection to Imperial, are we able to resubmit without the connection and not be held up? We didn't want to do it that way in the first place."
City Attorney T.J. Rethlake indicated that Chick-fil-A will have to wait six months before re-submitting a development plan, unless there is a significant change to the plan, as determined by the plan commission director.