Plans filed for new fast order food restaurants near Clinton Parkway and Inverness

I’m sure coffee sounds good to some of you following the historic late-night Royals victory and the celebrations that lasted into the morning. My healthful ways don’t allow me to drink coffee, so I’ve resorted to popping leftover Halloween Skittles approximately every 1.2 seconds. But those of you in southwest Lawrence soon may have a new option for coffee or other fast food pick-me-ups. New plans have been filed for commercial development near the corner of Clinton Parkway and Inverness, and they likely are going to get a close look by wary neighbors in the area.

A local development group has filed plans at City Hall seeking a special use permit that would allow for a “fast order food with drive-through” type of business to locate near the southeast corner of Clinton Parkway and Inverness. It is one of four restaurants proposed for the location, in addition to two office/retail buildings.

Thus far, the development group hasn’t made any announcements about what type of restaurants it hopes to draw to the site. Neighbors in the area have been wary of several previous development proposals for the corner — the most recent one a proposed family fun center that would have housed batting cages, electric go-karts, an arcade and mini-golf.

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The paperwork filed at City Hall indicates the same group — led by Lawrence businessman Glen Lemesany — is behind this project as well. Lawrence-based architect Paul Werner is designing the project, and he previously has said neighbors shouldn’t worry about the area becoming a new center for typical fast-food restaurants and their drive-thrus that sometimes can operate all night. He reiterated that point this week.

“A coffee shop is realistic,” Werner said via email of possible uses for the drive-thru space. “We won’t get, nor do we want to get a McDonald’s or Taco Bell, etc.”

The actual paperwork filed with the city, however, doesn’t get into any specifics about the type of users the development hopes to attract. It only describes the proposed use as “fast-order food with drive-through.”

Werner, though, explained that the city’s code lumps a variety of uses into the fast-order food category. A coffee-shop with a drive-thru and a fast-order hamburger restaurant are pretty much treated the same under the city’s zoning code, although how they fit into a neighborhood may be significantly different.

It is worth noting, though, that the plans submitted to the city actually show drive-thrus for two of the four restaurant spaces. It probably is unlikely that there will be two coffee shops side by side, so other fast-food drive-thru uses seem possible.

Werner said tenants haven’t been found for the project yet. He said the development group has filed for the special use permit for the drive-thru use because that process can be time consuming.

“We thought we would get that in the pipeline as we sort out who might actually want to go there,” Werner said via email.

The plans do list three of the four restaurant spaces as fast order food establishments, while the fourth space is listed as a “quality restaurant,” which is a City Hall term used to describe a restaurant that generally has table service and is focused on diners coming and staying for a bit as opposed to the high turnover of a fast-food establishment. The plans show the quality restaurant building also having a 1,000 square-foot patio.

As for the office and retail buildings on the site, Werner said tenants haven’t been found for those either. The plans list one building at just over 14,000 square feet and another at 8,000 square feet.

We’ll see how the project progresses through City Hall. The area between Inverness and Crossgate has developed with a lot of apartments over the past several years. That created concern from adjacent single-family home owners, who said they weren’t envisioning apartments for the area when they bought their homes years ago.

The family fun center idea met stiff opposition from neighbors. It is a little hard to tell how they will respond to the latest proposal. One development that did go through with minimal pushback was a new Hy-Vee convenience store at the corner of Crossgate and Clinton Parkway. It is a traffic generator at many hours of the day and evening, and it involves some outdoor uses.

Would drive-thru restaurants have a significantly different impact on the neighborhood than a convenience store?

I don’t know, and I have other issues to deal with now. I have to restock my candy supply, and don’t let what you hear about stealing candy from a baby fool you. My 9-year old daughter evidently is no baby, and I don’t remember the process previously involving jiu-jitsu.

Man, I — and my midsection — sure wish I knew jiu-jitsu.