NORFOLK — A new Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and two other restaurants planned for a vacant Monticello Avenue lot now have City Council approval, despite objections from the Planning Commission over setback requirements.
City Council members voted 6-2 to approve the restaurant location following testimony from the developer and a restaurant representative during a public hearing Tuesday.
A developer is seeking to transform one of the city’s few remaining vacant lots into a 2,862-square-foot Raising Cane’s restaurant with a drive-thru, plus two additional restaurants with 3,600 and 4,800 square feet of space, respectively. The Louisiana chain serves up fried chicken fingers and sauce, along with fries, coleslaw and Texas toast.
The other two proposed eateries include a high-end burger place and a sit-down breakfast restaurant, according to an email from the developer to city planning staff. Developer Bill Moseley said the project didn’t have a firm timeline, but hoped construction would begin in the first quarter of 2025 with it opening in the fourth quarter.
City Council members approved rezoning the property to accommodate the restaurant drive-thru plan. The Norfolk Planning Commission recommended denying the rezoning application, saying the proposed development does not comply with the setback requirements, or the space between the buildings and the street, consistent with the current zone. The current zone requires buildings to be 10 feet or less from the street.
However, complying with that condition would mean moving the drive-thru lanes and causing all customers to have to walk across them to enter the restaurant, said Randy Royal, a principal with Kimley-Horn and Associates speaking for the developer.
“They’ve had to do that elsewhere, and it’s been unsafe,” Royal said during the meeting. “They don’t want to repeat that error.”
Royal said distracted drivers looking at cell phones, for example, present a danger to customers attempting to enter the eatery.
According to city staff, the current long-term plan for the corridor is to transform the neighborhood character from an automobile-focused area to one more similar to Ghent. Those guidelines necessitated the setback requirements. However, Royal noted only the west side of the street had developed like that, and many other fast food businesses with drive-thru lanes dot the corridor.
Council members also approved a conditional use permit allowing the large drive-thru facility. Council member Andria McClellan and Vice Mayor Martin Thomas voted against the measures, but did not say why during Tuesday’s meeting.
According to city planning staff, a developer had planned to construct apartments and ground-floor retail on the property in 2014, but those plans fell through.
Speaking on behalf of Raising Cane’s, Felicia Bivens said the restaurant plans to hire more than 100 people with higher-than-average wages.
In Norfolk, Raising Cane’s operates a location inside the Navy Exchange near Naval Station Norfolk, according to its website. An Old Dominion University location closed in 2022 and was replaced with a Chick-fil-A.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
