The Town of Hamburg may be next in line for a new Chick-fil-A restaurant.
Representatives for the fast-food chain presented a preliminary sketch plan for the restaurant at Wednesday night's Town of Hamburg Planning Board meeting.
The 5,000-square-foot restaurant is proposed for the corner of 3464 McKinley Parkway in Hamburg, in the Raymour & Flanigan parking lot. It is shooting for a fall 2022 opening.
"That area of the town has suffered so much as a result of the demise of McKinley Mall that this is a shot of adrenaline and I think it will definitely help," said James Shaw, Town of Hamburg supervisor.
"I think it’s going to be a long-term fixture in the community and I think prospects are bright," he added.
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The sketch plan shows 120 seats inside the restaurant with another 24 seats on an outdoor patio; roughly the same as two existing locations in Cheektowaga. Its drive-thru will be similar, with two traffic lanes, but will have increased capacity for more vehicles. The Cheektowaga drive-thrus can fit 20 to 24 vehicles, while the proposed Hamburg site would hold 35.
Chick-fil-A would turn 2,500-square-feet of paved parking lot into new green space surrounding the perimeter of its drive-thru along Milestrip Road and McKinley Parkway, and between its drive-thru and the building. It would share 205 parking spaces with Raymour & Flanigan.
Traffic was a major concern for board members, particularly regarding Chick-fil-A patrons turning out of the parking lot and onto Milestrip Road, and outside traffic cutting through the parking lot. Because Milestrip is a state road, the town would lose control of addressing any traffic issues that may arise in the future, said board member Megan Comerford.
"It's really important that we do some really good, thorough planning with this to make sure that we're making smart choices, because we don't get a do-over and we don't get to remediate later," she said.
Board member Andrew Reilly agreed.
"We're gonna have people coming from all different directions; from Orchard Park, from the north, from the south, off the Thruway. You name it, they're going to be coming to this location. So we're going to have to look at all different scenarios," he said.
Chick-fil-A representatives are due back before the town board next month with a fully engineered site plan.
The first Western New York Chick-fil-A opened on Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga in 2018. The second location opened the following year on Transit Road near Losson Road in Cheektowaga.
