After Marathon Meeting, Walnut Creek OKs New Chick-fil-A Project

WALNUT CREEK, CA — In a marathon, seven-hour meeting Tuesday night, the Walnut Creek City Council took action early to help address traffic concerns over a restaurant proposed for the Citrus Marketplace Shopping Center on the corner of Oak Grove and Citrus Avenue.

At the conclusion of the public hearing part of the meeting, which spanned more than five hours into the early morning hours of Wednesday, the Council denied an appeal filed by a resident of a nearby neighborhood.

The Chick-fil-A restaurant will be unusual for the chain, as it will have no drive-thru service, only dine-in and takeout. The new 5,300-square-foot, fast-food restaurant will replace a vacant 8,200-square-foot building in the shopping center that, in recent years, has seen several vacancies.

An existing Chick-fil-A along North Main Street south of Geary Boulevard in Walnut Creek has been the subject of complaints because its drive-thru line often queues up onto North Main Street.

The new concept was intended to help alleviate that situation, city Spokesperson Betsy Burkhart said.

The project went before the City’s Design Review Commission in 2023 and was approved by the Planning Commission in March.

However, a resident in the nearby Woodlands neighborhood filed an appeal. The resident cited various concerns, the most significant being potential traffic issues, Burkhart said.

The city commissioned a licensed traffic engineering firm to evaluate the concerns about the impact it could have on the neighborhood traffic. The firm compared data from other Chick-fil-A locations and evaluated current conditions at the intersection. Traffic from two nearby shopping centers was also taken into consideration.

The project met all the zoning requirements for the shopping center, which is privately owned.

"The Council took note of the specific concerns from neighbors in the Woodlands community, and adopted requirements to monitor and improve traffic and congestion issues should they occur," Burkhart said.