JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Some neighbors in Oceanway are continuing to fight a proposed Chick-fil-A in their neighborhood.
At Wednesday night’s land use and zoning meeting, neighbors voiced their concerns about several things, including traffic.
The site is already zoned for a single lane drive thru restaurant, but the developer wants to rezone the land to allow for Chick-fil-A's double lane drive thru model.
The application includes more parking spots and moves the site of the restaurant closer to Duval Station Road, away from the neighboring North Creek subdivision.
The applicant said the additional parking will contain more traffic inside the restaurant parking lot, but neighbors disagreed. The committee decided to defer the project two months to give the developer time to do a traffic study in the area. Some neighbors are worried the traffic study won't accurately tell the story; one is collecting his own data.
"This is my field expedient traffic study workstation,” Robin Hood, a lawyer who lives in the North Creek Subdivision said.
The entrance of the Chick-fil-A would be on Lady Lake Road, inside the subdivision.
Hood believes the traffic would overflow out of the entrance and back up the neighborhood's entrance on Bradley Cove Road.
“If there’s a ghost (imaginary) car on Bradley Cove Road the car behind him that wants nothing more in life but to go home in the neighborhood, he can’t because of this double yellow line right here," Hood said.
Hood set up a foldup table, camera and monitor at the corner of Lady Lake Road and Bradley Cove Road to track cars going into the North Creek Subdivision.
“It does look a little weird, when you’re a lawyer with a name like Robin Hood, weird does come with the territory a little bit," Hood said.
Hood plans to collect the data and bring it to a traffic expert.
“(To) tell us what the numbers mean and what the impacts will be," Hood said.
On Saturday, Hood hosted what he called a mock traffic simulation, dressed like a traffic cone.
“I am the guy who wore the ridiculous orange suit," Hood said at Wednesday's LUZ Committee meeting, where he presented his results.
“If they’re (cars) arriving one every 20 seconds which is almost as fast as what they [Chick-fil-A] can kick out. Then you’re going to start getting back up," Hood said.
Hood and his neighbors convinced the committee to delay the vote. He now has almost two months to collect his own data.
“Whatever information that they've gathered that we can use that realistically make sense, I will use that into account when I'm making my decision as to whether to approve or not approve the zoning," Jacksonville City Council member Raul Arias said.
In LUZ, Arias raised concerns about voting on the project without having data from a traffic study. He said he wouldn't mind seeing traffic studies being done prior to making decisions in the future.
Councilman Rory Diamond also wanted to see a traffic study done first.
He asked the city's Transportation Planning Chief, Laurie Santana, if a traffic study came back that said, "you can't do anything about traffic," at the site.
Santana said, "There's always something you can do."
She said there won't be as much additional traffic at the site as there is already traffic in the area from the nearby Publix shopping center and Daily's gas station.
"There will be some interaction with all of the existing uses," Santana said.
Arias is happy neighbors like Hood are doing their own research and said both the developer and neighbor's numbers will factor into his decision. Arias did say the developer's study will be vetted by the city's traffic engineers.
Hood hopes his numbers can help.
“It may become relevant, it may not, but I want to be able to give data to the city council and the zoning board," Hood said.
The project will be discussed April 16 where neighbors will have one last chance to speak, but they will only be allowed to speak on the traffic study.
The committee will be able to discuss the study and other concerns brought forward by neighbors.
Arias said he has some concerns about drainage in the area.
"Right now, they have a roughly about 12 to 14 feet of elevation from where the Chick-fil-A is projected to be at and it's going to drain down into the neighbors. However, the Chick-fil-a sites, I also want to make sure that people understand, they have their own drainage system which goes into their own retention pond behind the Publix. However, there could be some excess on the road. have different types of contaminants like gas or coolant leaks on actual pavement itself, essentially flushed into the neighborhood."
District councilmember Reggie Gaffney Jr. said he is going to reach out to neighbors to see if they would like to meet before the meeting on April 16.
He also was concerned a traffic study was not done before the LUZ meeting.
"The fact that we didn't have a traffic study before we made that decision last night is definitely something is definitely concerning."