The Henderson Group will return to the Chadds Ford Planning Commission at least one more time before it can get a recommendation for a new building in Painters Crossing.
As reported in November, Henderson wants to construct a 15,000-plus square foot building at the southeast corner of the shopping center, taking over the pads that had previously been occupied by Farmers’ Road, Arby’s, and the first location for El Gran Rodeo. Those structures were demolished several years ago.
Plans call for the new building to house up to five new businesses with at least one of them being a restaurant with a drive-thru and an outdoor dining area.
The November meeting was, what Planning Commission Chairman Craig Huffman said at the time, just the beginning of the conversation. The conversation continued on Jan. 8, still with no recommendation.
The applicant is looking not only for a recommendation for the SALDO (subdivision and land use) but also for a recommendation for a conditional use hearing to accommodate outdoor dining and drive-thru lanes.
Attorney Marc D’Amico who is representing Henderson for the application, said in January that Henderson has filed for conditional use approval for the drive-thru and the outdoor dining area, though there are still no signed tenants. There were three drive-thrus with previous tenants, but this plan brings that down to one, he added.
(The shopping center is in the PBC-1 Zoning District which allows for outdoor dining and drive-thru service with conditional use approval.)
Additionally, he said, “There is a slight decrease in impervious coverage in addition to the fact that there is significant stormwater management.”
D’Amico said his client made changes to the original stormwater management plan following the review from township engineer Mike Schneider after the November meeting.
Schneider said later in the meeting that he could give a “thumbs up” to the stormwater plan. “We’re looking good on stormwater management here.”
Engineer John Grant, with Santec Engineering, addressed the issue of the two stacking lanes for the drive-thru. He said the updated plan smooths out the two lanes with the inner lane used by customers using the ordering pad on the side, while the outer lane would be used for mobile orders.
The drive-thru stacking lanes were also widened from 14 to 18 feet. To make that happen, Grant said, they moved the building to the left by nine feet.
Another change is at the drive-thru window itself. In the original plan, a driver would have to make a 45-degree turn to get into the exit lane after picking up the order. That angle has been reduced and softened in the updated plan, “more of a general taper,” according to Grant.
He said that moving the building caused the loss of eight parking spaces on one side but picked up an additional five on another side along with a widened landscape area.
An issue that arose during the November meeting was that of pedestrian safety. Grant said they have added more pedestrian crosswalks, along with added sidewalks and a handicap ramp.
The revised plan also calls for more landscaping, especially along the back side of the new building, the side that faces Route 202. Grant said he’s talking with township land planner Tom Comitta to work out the final landscaping design.
“I have no doubt that we will come up with. something that will satisfy Tom’s concerns,” Grant said.
Comitta said that he has looked at the glare factor, glare from headlights from cars driving south on Route 202. To mitigate that issue, he suggested different types of shrubs rather than the shamrock holly shrubs that were originally proposed because they would provide better screening.
Later in the discussion, traffic engineer Matt Hammond addressed use and traffic flow. He said a fast-casual restaurant — the preferred type of tenant — such as a Five Guys or Chipotle would generate less traffic than a typical fast food restaurant because fast food restaurants have more drive-thru traffic.
In making calculations, Hammond said they began with a figure of 100 and estimated that up to 70 would use the drive-thru.
“If there’s 100 people that would access the restaurant, how many do we think would utilize the drive-thru,” he said. “There is industry data out there to suggest somewhere in the range of 50 percent, with another 10 to 20 percent being associated with Grubhub or Uber East, mobile orders.”
Hammond added that the two drive-thru lanes can handle a total of 18 vehicles combined. That figure is based on a 25-foot distance from front bumper to front bumper. If drivers creep up to narrow that distance, then maybe 20 or 22 vehicles would fit. However, he added, about 90 percent of the time there would be about five vehicles in the queue.
In wrapping up the Henderson portion of the commission agenda, Huffman said it’s difficult to proceed without knowing who would be leasing those spaces, specifically the restaurant space.
“From the SALDO perspective, we’re in good shape. From a conditional use standpoint, there are still some issues on the table we have to deal with…It’s difficult to know how to proceed without knowing who the tenants will be…I’m concerned about who the end user will be. We need more time.”
That time is needed to work out the wording on conditions before recommending a conditional use hearing to the Board of Supervisors.
Huffman added that the commission would put Henderson back on the agenda for February.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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