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Florence planning committee backs Turfley Commons drive-through with conditions
Summary
City planning staff presented a revised concept plan for a 3,500-sq-ft restaurant with a two-lane drive-through at an outlot on Houston Road; the planning commission and city committee recommended approval subject to multiple conditions addressing access, landscaping, masonry, signage and rules to suspend drive-through operations if queuing obstructs adjacent roadways.
Todd Morgan, presenting the planning committee's recommendation, described a revised concept plan to allow a roughly 3,500-square-foot restaurant with 93 indoor seats, an outdoor seating area, two drive-through lanes and 54 on-site parking spaces on a 1.55-acre outlot along Houston Road between Texas Roadhouse and Family Allergy & Asthma.
Morgan said the Boone County Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval with 16 conditions; the city's planning and zoning committee then revised some of those conditions before forwarding the recommendation to the council. Staff highlighted design changes that brought the building into compliance with the plan-development masonry standard (revised elevations showing masonry coverage at or above the 50% requirement) and presented a material board showing two brick shades, corrugated red metal awnings, and EFIS panels.
Key conditions recommended by the committee include compliance with the revised concept plans; the detached drive-through canopy must not encroach into the front yard and all support poles must be fully wrapped in brick that matches the building; circulation signage must establish a one-way east movement for the driveway that links to the strip-center aisle; islands to the west and north must meet parking-lot landscape requirements, with other islands planted as large shrubs; the transformer in the street-front buffer must be screened; light poles shall match existing fixtures; and two lit, handicapped-accessible crosswalks must be provided to adjacent lots.
The committee also included operational and safety provisions for the drive-through: drive-through stacking is permitted per the approved plans, but if repeated complaints and city verification show queuing is creating unsafe or obstructed conditions on public roadways, the main east-west driveway, or adjoining properties, the city may require corrective actions and temporarily suspend drive-through operations after providing at least 48 hours' written notice to the property owner and operator. The outside seating area must be fenced and use metal, architectural-grade picnic tables and coordinated umbrellas with no advertising.
Councilors asked about enforceability; Morgan said the applicant and property owner signed the condition letter acknowledging the city's authority to require corrective measures and suspend operations if necessary. A council member also asked the police department about crash history at the adjacent intersection; staff reported there were no traffic accidents at that intersection in the last year.
The committee recommended approval with additional conditions and indicated no further public hearing was required. No final council vote on the resolution was recorded in the caucus transcript.
The next procedural steps would be placement of the matter on a future council agenda for any formal action the legislative body chooses to take.
