Chick-fil-A Denied AGAIN for Beltline Location in Grand Rapids

As we start seeing Chick-fil-A's pop up around West Michigan, it doesn't seem as if one location is going to get the green light from the city of Grand Rapids.

A Chick-fil-A restaurant was proposed along E. Beltline, at Celebration Village, where Fajita Republic used to be. The City Commissioners denied the request the first time, in October, and have just denied it for a second time!

At Thursday night's meeting, all the commissioners had concerns regarding traffic flow. They all believe that having a drive-thru in that area would cause a lot of backups. G.R. Planning Department Director, Suzanne Schulz told WOOD-TV:

“The Beltline handles over 30,000 cars a day. Chick-fil-A’s peak traffic time is the same as the peak traffic time on the Beltline"

She also says that if a drive-thru was taken out of the plan, they would more than likely approve it.

However, if they allowed Chick-fil-A to open with its current plans, it would open the door for other fast-food restaurants (with a high volume of traffic) to want to come to the area, which would cause further problems.