TOWSON, Md. — The neighborhood rumor mill was true: a new Chick-fil-A restaurant is coming to Towson.
The restaurant is taking over the former Bob Evans Restaurant site at 1265 East Joppa Road, next to Qdoba. The old building has been razed and space is being cleared to make way for a freestanding building with Chick-fil-A’s double drive-through lines.
A sign went up on the site last week. People had been speculating on social media about the site for months and as activity grew on the site, some neighbors said they’d heard it was a Chick-fil-A.
Neighbors say they are concerned about the increase in traffic that usually follows the popular fast food chicken restaurant. It is across the street from Wawa. The company went to Baltimore County two years ago to request a zoning waiver to build on the site.
Chick-fil-A and the landowner went to Baltimore County two years ago to request a waiver to build a drive through restaurant on the site. The property borders homes in the Loch Raven Village neighborhood on one side.
County spokesperson Erica Palmisano says Chick-fil-A came to an agreement with the Loch Raven Village neighborhood association board about the new restaurant, and a traffic study was completed at that time.
Existing zoning requires that drive aisles be at least 75 feet away from a residential area. The county approved a drive aisle “as close as 2 ft., to a residential zone,” according to county records from September 2022.
The county also granted variances to create 97 off-street parking spaces for the restaurant instead of the required 138 spaces; to permit a larger, freestanding sign with a face area of 18 square feet instead of 8 feet; and three larger, wall-mounted signs with a face area of 58.75 square feet instead of 2 square feet.
Palmisano says the landowner received a limited exemption to replace the building, and grading permits were approved earlier this year.
There is another freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurant about two miles away on East Joppa Road in Parkville. That one is closed for renovations and is reopening in June. There’s also a Chick-fil-A inside Towson Town Center.
This story will be updated.
