After delays due to traffic concerns, the city has approved development of a Chick-fil-A in downtown Renton.
The Chick-fil-A would be located at the former Diamond Lil’s Casino at 361 Rainier Ave. South, next to the Fred Meyer parking lot.
The proposed restaurant would include two drive-thru lanes and 42 parking spaces. The drive-thru lanes were proposed to hold 15 cars.
Current city zoning would only allow 18 parking spaces, but the applicant requested additional spaces due to Chick-fil-A’s high demand customer base.
The submitted traffic report estimates 86 new trips in the morning peak hours and 68 new trips in the evening peak hours. It also proposes having a police officer present to make sure cars won’t back up Rainier Avenue South.
The application was put on hold in October to gather more information on traffic impact.
In the notice to the applicant, it said police indicated that the intersection north of the Chick-fil-A location sees one of the highest vehicle and pedestrian accident rates, and that makes it important to prevent congestion in that area.
The on hold notice also considered the possible impact of Renton High School students. As of this school year, all students now have one lunch time, 11:00 a.m. to 11:35 a.m.
After further review, a revised traffic report on Jan. 9 included plans to handle the first few weeks of traffic impacts, and concluded existing streets will be able to handle any additional traffic generated.
The project was submitted in August 2018. It went to Renton’s Environmental Review Committee Jan. 28 after being on hold from Oct. 2018 to January to inspect traffic impacts
Renton police indicated they would monitor the traffic impacts to ensure safety to the public and determine how many officers would be needed to direct vehicles, according to the advisory notes in the application documents.
This will be the 10th Chick-fil-A in Western Washington. The franchise recently opened a location in Tukwila.
Solutions to possible congestion in the opening weeks of the Renton Chick-fil-A, from the traffic report on the Renton website.
