There are NIMBYs, and now it seems there are NO-FIL-As. The latter don’t want a Chick-fil-A restaurant in their backyards.
These NO-FIL-As aren’t your usual NIMBYs, homeowners who crop up to protect their biggest investment and oppose things that can change their backyards and neighborhood. Like a junkyard, logistics center, shopping mall or auto dealership.
Nope, these neighborly NO-FIL-As, owners of nearby industrial and research buildings in Waukegan, are opposed to the proposed location for the fast-food eatery at the southeast corner of Northpoint Boulevard and Waukegan Road (Route 43) on the city’s far West Side. The proposal and opposition are leaving city officials in a quandary, according to Steve Sadin’s front-page News-Sun story earlier this week.
As we have seen with other projects in Waukegan, nothing ever seems to come easy. There’s always a “but on the other hand” moment in which city officials can take refuge either way and chicken out.
Such is what’s happening to the Chick-fil-A proposal offered by a Wilmette developer whose marketers believe the site they’ve staked out is perfect for the restaurant. It’s on a heavily trafficked corner across Waukegan Road from the Fountain Square entertainment district, where a number of restaurants currently reside, including the chicken-oriented Raising Cane’s.
The proposal is to create a new lot in the Northpoint Business Center between two industrial concerns, whose executives are none too keen on the prospect. They have indicated that would be “spot zoning” for plopping a restaurant in the midst of a zoning district set aside for research, light industrial manufacturing and production, which is what they do.
In a split vote earlier this month, the city’s Community Development Committee endorsed the Chick-fil-A site. However, in early September the city’s Planning and Zoning Committee opposed the proposal. With its two planning panels in conflict and playing chicken with each other over the restaurant’s request, the City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed zoning change on Tuesday.
Most communities welcome Chick-fil-As, which are known for their range of sandwiches, waffle fries and a menu of fast-food chicken cuisine. There currently are five of the outlets in Lake County, with the one in Gurnee, at Grand Avenue and Hunt Club Road, the closest to Waukegan.
The restaurants donate surplus food to community nonprofits to feed those in need and fight food insecurity. Additionally, the company says every time a new restaurant opens, Chick-fil-A, Inc., donates $25,000 to Feeding America.
The company also is known for having its restaurants closed on Sundays, a holdover from when S. Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-A in Atlanta in 1967. The family-owned corporation operates more than 3,100 restaurants across 48 states, as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada and other foreign locations, with plans this year for increasing those numbers.
According to the company, with each new Chick-fil-A restaurant opening, 80 to 120 jobs are created. The average gross for each of its restaurants is $6.71 million a year, despite being only open six days. Its annual sales trail only leading fast-food giant McDonald’s.
In contrast, Astronics, one of the city’s major employers whose executives oppose the restaurant, is a $780 million public concern supplying technology to the aerospace industry. The company plans to add 200 workers to its 250,000-square-foot office and warehouse office complex along Waukegan Road in 2025, according to Sadin’s Jan. 13 account.
Developers of the restaurant note Chick-fil-A has a certain footprint to its outlets and doesn’t want to be off Waukegan Road, say to the interior of the Fountain Square zone. Big Ed’s BBQ, itself in a former repurposed Pizza Hut, is about to move from its location on Northpoint Boulevard to a larger site, the former Milan Banquet Hall, in the same vicinity which would leave an open restaurant spot.
While Waukegan officials and residents might be excited over a Chick-fil-A opening in the city, it may not happen unless the company bends a bit from its wished-for site in a district reserved for industrial production. Especially with plenty of restaurants and fast-food options along Waukegan Road, and in the interior of Fountain Square.
City officials seem hesitant to rezone and break the industrial zoning tag for the east side of Waukegan Road, leaning toward the argument offered by officials from the companies that a restaurant that close will impact their businesses.
If that is the case, Chick-fil-A may be laying an egg in Waukegan next week.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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