Might proposed Braintree Chick-fil-A finally get traffic plan fixed?

BRAINTREE – The traffic impacts of the redevelopment of the former Motel 6 property on Union Street will be discussed at a meeting of the planning board Tuesday night.

Torrington Properties of Boston has purchased the 125 Union St. property and is seeking to build a 5,225 square foot Chick-fil-A restaurant with a double drive-through and a 2,500 square foot Brookline Bank branch with a single drive-thru. The restaurant would have indoor and outdoor seating,

Two traffic studies have been done of the project, one done for the developer by VAI and an independent review done by Tighe & Bond.

There would be a single entrance and exit to the development from Union Street, near the current access to the property. A traffic island blocks access to the entrance from the westbound lanes of Union Street.

To reach the restaurant from Union Street west, drivers would have to turn onto Ivory Street, make a U-turn in the area of the entrance to the Braintree MBTA station, head back down Ivory Street before turning onto Union Street east and then into the development. These movements could increase backups at the intersection, traffic engineers found, with the worst effects coming during the evening rush hour.

Town Council President Meredith Boericke, whose District 5 includes the area, cited the studies in saying the backups could extend all the way up the Route 3 southbound off-ramp all the way to the travel lanes.

"A quarter-mile backup on an already clogged highway is a significant concern," Boericke wrote in a Facebook post.

Frank Marinelli, a lawyer representing Torrington, told the appeals board last November said the long and narrow shape of the the property will allow up to 60 vehicles to line up on the site for the drive-through windows, not on the street.

The plans call for the motel, which has been closed and boarded up for several years, to be torn down as well as the former Bickford's restaurant, which shut down more than a decade ago,

The board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Cahill Auditorium of town hall.

Reach Fred Hanson at fhanson@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Traffic plans for proposed Chick-fil-A to be reviewed in Braintree