Planning commission agrees to rehear Chick-fil-A plat after debate over plat vs. site plan

The Kokomo City Planning Commission voted Feb. 11 to rehear case P17P24, a primary-plat application to carve a corner out of an existing shopping-center parcel for a proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant. Commissioners debated whether traffic and public-safety concerns cited by some members were appropriate legal grounds to deny the plat.

City counsel and outside counsel representing Chick-fil-A’s owner participated in the discussion. Attorney Misha Rabinowitch told the commission: "If the plat is compliant with the subdivision control ordinance, then it has to be approved." Counsel for the city explained that, under Indiana Code § 36-7-4-707 and the local subdivision control ordinance, a plat approval is generally ministerial if it meets ordinance standards and that denying a plat without a codified basis could expose the city to a writ in circuit court.

Several commissioners said they had voted against the plat at the prior meeting because of traffic-safety concerns tied to the location, not because of the plat’s technical compliance. One commissioner said traffic and safety at the site felt like "a bonafide legitimate reason" for the previous no vote; other commissioners and counsel disagreed about whether those concerns belonged to the subsequent site-plan review instead of the plat stage.

After extended discussion the commission voted to rehear the plat in March to ensure the record clearly differentiates plat-specific compliance issues from site-plan matters such as parking layout, driveway locations and traffic circulation. The motion to rehear passed on a voice vote; the rehearing will be publicly noticed and scheduled for the next month’s meeting.