Plat committee advances restaurant plan, but Imperial Drive access will be a sticking point

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Chick-fil-A is yet another step closer to reality in Kokomo, but it could easily take a leap backwards.

On Dec. 31, the Kokomo Plan Commission’s Plat Committee reviewed the final plat and development plan for the Sandor Bypass subdivision, which encompasses the land slated for the restaurant. But the question of traffic flow into and out of the Sandor property, which already contains Hobby Lobby, Staples, and several other businesses, is still very much an issue.

City of Kokomo Director of Engineering Jon Pyke expressed his concerns about how traffic will be handled on the site once Chick-fil-A is in place.

“I'm still wanting to see an intersection detail for the northeast corner of the site, along with the promoted traffic patterns and traffic control measures,” said Pyke. “What is already a problematic confluence of traffic will be made even worse by this.

“I can see adding some stop signs, stop bars, things like that, to kind of direct people through, because it's kind of a train wreck. I think it can be overcome. I just want to see how you're planning to do it.”

The representative for Sandor Bypass Development agreed that such additions should be implemented and will be recorded in the final plan, but that promise only addressed traffic on-site. How motorists get in and out of the commercial lot was still an issue.

Pyke pointed out that the site plan does include opening access to Imperial Drive on the south side of the property. Mayor Tyler Moore indicated last year that he intends to open access to the road, and Pyke stated that he would not vote in favor of the project without that access.

“It was at my request,” said Pyke. “I'll take the heat. (Chick-fil-A) didn't want to do it. I made them do it.”

Kokomo Plan Commission member Cathy Stover lives in the Cedar Crest subdivision immediately south of the project. Though not a voting member of the plat committee, she attended the meeting and expressed strong concerns about the traffic caused by allowing access to Chick-fil-A via Imperial Drive.

“Even this Christmas, when you pulled out of Cedar Crest onto 931, you turned into the turn lane going to Markland,” said Stover of the congestion in the immediate area.

No alternate solutions to traffic congestion were offered, and the plat committee forwarded the case to the plan commission on Jan. 14. But Stover wasn’t quite finished. She asked plan commission director Greg Sheline where she might find records from 1963. He directed her to the physical records maintained in the office.

Stover’s inquiry then took a legal turn.

“It's no secret that the Imperial thing went to court when they broke ground for Kmart,” said Stover. “It was agreed that (Imperial) would never be a passage.”

In speaking with long-time residents of the Cedar Crest subdivision and reviewing some history, she believes that the court ruling could be recorded in the plan commission’s records.

“The neighbors took it to court,” said Stover. “I think it was in 1963 because Kmart was supposed to open April 12, 1965, but it got hit by the tornado on April 11, 1965.”

Stover began her research following the meeting, as the language of the court ruling will have a significant impact on the development and whether access can be granted by the city. Considering that some plan commission members, such as Pyke, will vote against the project without that access, Chick-fil-A’s arrival in Kokomo is by no means a certainty.

The Kokomo Plan Commission next meets on Tue., Jan. 14, at 5 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall.