The Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday unanimously endorsed measures that will allow the city’s second Chick-fil-A, an 8,100-square-foot amusement facility and a long-awaited affordable housing complex to move forward.
Proposals now move to the Naperville City Council for a final vote at a later date.
Chick-fil-A
Commissioners OK’d a variance from municipal code sought by Chick-fil-A so the fast-food chain can open a drive-thru only location at 3320 Route 59.
Chick-fil-A, per plans filed with the city, wants to build a 2,936-square-foot restaurant complete with two drive-through lanes, a walk-up window, outdoor patio space and 50 parking spaces. The restaurant will be a redevelopment of space that had been occupied by Taps N Tenders, which closed after a nearly five-year run in Naperville last December.
The code deviation Chick-fil-A seeks would provide a shorter bypass lane than is typically required under the municipal ordinance.
While code requires that a bypass lane be provided along the entire length of a drive-thru, Chick-fil-A wants to it to be about three-quarters of the length. Joseph Vavrina, civil engineer for the project, said Wednesday that the bypass lane needs to be cut short because of the site’s size and the need to fit adequate parking.
Primary access to the drive-thru location would be provided from Lacrosse Lane.
Commissioners’ approval of Chick-fil-A plans this week comes six months after the city greenlit a proposal for a different Chick-fil-A location to go in at 1159 E. Ogden Ave.
The Ogden location, part of Naperville’s larger Iroquois Center, will be the city’s first Chick-fil-A. Should the proposed location off Route 59 receive the council’s OK, it would be the second, according to Sara Kopinski, a community planner with the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department.
Nearby, the chain already operates locations at Aurora’s Fox Valley Mall, Bolingbrook, Wheaton and Oswego. The closest drive-thru-only location to Naperville is in Glendale, Wisconsin.
Activate Games
Plans to bring a new high-tech gaming experience to the city’s Fox River Commons shopping center also got the go ahead from commissioners this week.
Activate Games is seeking to reimagine property on the east side of Route 59 between La Fox Avenue and Ogden into an 8,100-square-foot amusement establishment. Two requests from developers — a major change to the Fox River Commons planned unit development and a conditional use permit to allow for the amusement facility — won commission approval.
Operating locations across the country, Activate calls itself “the world’s first active gaming facility,” according to its website.
It’s a live-action adventure where players are given the chance to move through different rooms with interactive technology, each supplying various games to choose from, the website says. One room, for instance, challenges players to dodge through a sequence of lasers. Another has players climb an interactive rock wall.
The closest Activate to Naperville is in Oak Brook.
Tower Court Residences
Several permit and variance requests from Tower Court Residences also earned planners’ approval without a hitch.
In the works for the past few years now, Tower Court is a 71-unit, multifamily complex proposed for the southeast corner of 103rd Street and Route 59 on city-owned property known as the South 40 Lots.
The development will offer affordable housing for seniors and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
