Chick-fil-A plans teardown, rebuild of Daytona's International Speedway Blvd. restaurant

Patrons of the popular restaurant at the highly visible intersection of International Speedway and Williamson boulevards in Daytona Beach may have to EAT MOR CHIKIN elsewhere for a few months.

Chick-fil-A #0866, 100 N. Williamson Blvd., has plans to close, tear down its building, and rebuild with a newer model.

The Daytona Beach City Commission passed on first reading, without discussion, a rezoning of the 1.2-acre site passed by some 40,000 vehicles daily. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 19 at the City Commission chambers.

Help Offered: Daytona Beach area restaurants feed residents after Tropical Storm Ian — how you can help

Open, Closed or Damaged?: Waterfront restaurants in Daytona Beach area after Hurricane Ian

'Road Needs Improvement': Millions in upgrades coming to Mason Avenue

Plans include two 10-foot-wide drive-thru lanes, a new order canopy on the building's west side and outdoor seating to the north. The city is requiring nine additional parking spaces.

The building will be expanded from 3,295 to 4,960 square feet.

The developer's agreement with the city also calls for onsite storm water retention/detention facilities. Chick-fil-A must file for construction permits within 18 months of the rezoning approval.

Kendra Lewis, the permit manager of Interplan LLC, said if all goes according to plan, the store will close in early December for a few months.

Hannah Ward, a city planner, presented the plans at an Aug. 25 Planning Board meeting, where they received unanimous consent.

"We initially got the rezoning request in 2019 and it took that long for them to negotiate with the adjacent property owner to obtain the additional nine spaces they needed," Ward said. "It's pretty much been in staff review for the past couple years."

She said the franchise owner, Chris Kirby, and Lewis have met all of the city's requirements.

Kirby, who did not return a call seeking comment Friday, said he plans to work with other area Chick-fil-A operators, including DeLand, Orange City, Port Orange and Ormond Beach, to temporarily transfer his employees. If they are not offered positions that pay them the same amount they are making in Daytona Beach, Kirby said he will offset the difference.

Planning Board member Mike McLean had a question about the plans to stack vehicles into the drive-through lanes. The design allows for 38 vehicles at one time to squeeze into the two drive-through lanes.

"If anyone's been by Chick-fil-A, you know how crazy it can be, especially at lunchtime," McLean said. "Let's assume all 38 are being queued. We're not going to have an issue with traffic either going out to ISB or Williamson, are we?"

Ward said the redesign "is intended to resolve that issue."

When board members commented that at times the line from the Chick-fil-A drive through sometimes does spill out onto International Speedway Boulevard, city Planning Director Dennis Mrozek noted that the redesign requires vehicles entering the drive-through to do so toward the back of the restaurant, further away from the roadway.

"We've been waiting a long time for this one," Lewis told planning board members.

Never miss a story: Subscribe to The Daytona Beach News-Journal using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Chick-fil-A plans to close, rebuild with expanded drive-thru