Chick-fil-A proposed for the Winter Springs Town Center

A Chick-fil-A drive-thru could be on order for the Winter Springs Town Center. 

The 5,576-square-foot restaurant is planned for the southeast corner of the intersection of East State Road 434 and Michael Blake Boulevard, just south of where Tuskawilla Road and S.R. 434 meet. The wedge-shaped plot of land includes the Mobil gas station.

The developer is asking for a waiver from a Winter Springs Town Center regulation requiring drive-thru windows to be in the back of the restaurant. Winter Springs spokesman Matthew Reeser said that now that the developer has put in an application, it’s up to staff to review it. 

“During the process, the developer or Chick-fil-A will need to hold a community workshop so residents can see the plans and voice their concerns to the developer,” Reeser said. “Because it is a commercial development, they need to have a community workshop.”

Reeser said the proposal would also need to go through the Planning and Zoning Board and the Winter Springs City Commission as well.

At a recent Winter Springs City Commission meeting, resident Janet Pinnell objected to the idea of the Chick-fil-A, saying she was worried about the traffic. Pinnell lives at The Savoy, a senior-living center right by the proposed Chick-fil-A. 

“I’m sure you all know what traffic is with a Chick-fil-A,” Pinnell said. “That would again put a lot of traffic on Michael Blake Boulevard where our seniors drive … I’m not opposed to them coming to the community, I just don’t want them that close to our senior community.”

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said because the property is already zoned commercial, there’s only so much the City Commission can do.

“People have the right to develop a piece of property,” McCann said. “We don’t have a lot of legal standing to stop people from using their own private land how they want to use it.”

Oviedo Community News reached out to the developer, the construction company and Chick-fil-A’s corporate office. No one responded before press deadline. 

In documents submitted to the city, officials representing Chick-fil-A said following the Town Center’s code to have the drive-thru in the back of the restaurant would make the design “illogical, impractical and unreasonable.”

“Locating the restaurant’s drive-through service window on the side of the restaurant is integral to the internal traffic circulation design of the project as a whole,” officials representing Chick-fil-A wrote in documents (posted below) to the city. Check back to Oviedo Community News for more updates as the project moves forward.