The city is reviewing permits for site-clearing and construction for the proposed Chick-fil-A at 705 Duval Station Road in North Jacksonville.
The proposed 5,033-square-foot quick-service restaurant and dual-drive-thru is planned on 1.39 acres at a construction cost estimated at $1.3 million and site-clearing at $182,000.
Site plans show the restaurant will have a gross square footage of 5,333 square feet with 92 seats, including outdoor patio dining, two canopies and 63 parking spaces.
Bohler Engineering FL LLC of Boca Raton is the civil engineer.
The total investment so far according to permits is shown as $1.48 million. The clearing application was filed March 27 and the construction permit April 22.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A Inc. proposes to build the restaurant at northeast Duval Station and Bradley Cove roads.
According to the site-clearing application, the developer is proposing to demolish all of the trees on the site; curb and gutter along Lady Lake Road; the driveway entrance to a JEA lift station; and the sidewalk along Lady Lake Road.
The erosion control plan will include fencing for silt, tree protection and construction; and there will be a construction entrance and inlet protection.
RBSSSS LLC of Jacksonville Beach is the property owner. It intends to lease the property to Chick-fil-A.
The permit applications follow Bohler Engineering’s submission of civil engineering plans to the city Aug. 9, 2024, for the development, which is across Duval Station Road from First Coast High School.
As proposed, it will have two full access driveways on Lady Lake Road east of Bradley Cove Road.
The building is set back on the site, backing up to Duval Station Road, with Bradley Cove Road to the west and Lady Lake Road to the north.
A Daily’s gas station at 711 Duval Station Road is to east. There also is an access road to the Publix Super Markets Inc.-anchored Duval Station Centre shopping center to the east at 731 Duval Station Road.
Duval Station Road connects with Starratt Road at the Publix center entrance.
Bohler Engineering also submitted an application Aug. 9, 2024, to the St. Johns River Water Management District for a minor modification to the property’s environmental resource permit for the project.
City Council voted 12-7 to rezone the land in June 2024 and change the Planned Unit Development district to accommodate the project. The PUD is called the Northcreek Commercial Outparcel PUD.
The rezoning was Ordinance 2023-0856.
The property previously was approved for one drive-thru lane, right-in and right-out access along Duval Station Road and two driveways on Lady Lake Road, with one of those inbound only.
Access to the Chick-fil-A off of Lady Lake Road has customers arriving by car entering through the North Creek subdivision entrance on Bradley Cove Road or through the neighboring shopping center parking lot.
The proposed restaurant was the topic of dozens of hours of debate at Council and committee meetings after it emerged in early 2023. Dozens of residents spoke against the project numerous times in Council and community meetings, including in a public hearing before the Council in February 2023.
After disappearing for months amid a first round of opposition by the city, the project reemerged in December 2023.
Neighbors raised concerns about traffic safety, congestion, crime and a reduction of property values stemming from the restaurant.
They contended that at peak times, traffic from the restaurant would spill over and block access to the North Creek subdivision.
On June 5, 2024, the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee voted 6-1 to recommend passage of the rezoning request after a public hearing on a traffic study for the project that was paid for by Chick-fil-A.
Based on the results of the study, the city is requiring a new traffic light at Bradley Cove and Duval Station roads, which Chick-fil-A is funding, and a continuous right-turn lane into the restaurant.
Several LUZ members noted that a previous Council had approved rezoning in 2015 for a fast-food restaurant with a single drive-thru, and raised concerns that denying Chick-fil-A’s rezoning request could prompt the chain to sue the city.
Reggie Gaffney Jr., whose District 8 includes the restaurant parcel, proposed amendments that included sign restrictions, requirements for trees along a buffer strip and a prohibition on walk-up windows. Council approved the amendments.
The rezoning request was granted to property owner RBSSSS LLC, which applied to rezone the land as a Planned Unit Development.
Ramzy Bakkar, president of the Bakkar Group in Jacksonville Beach, manages RBSSSS. Documents included with the rezoning application say the developer is Chick-fil-A.