A recent zoning request for a new fast food restaurant prompted Cookeville officials to discuss changes to its drive thru ordinances at a Monday work session.
The proposed change would permit drive-thrus in a neighborhood commercial zone only upon appeal. In 2018, the city amended its ordinance permitting such facilities so long as they were on a major street. City Manager James Mills said the city may have made a mistake.
“Do we just let that go, no matter what detriment it is potential to the neighborhood,” Mills said. “So I mean that’s a choice you gotta make, cause you’ve got the right to the buyer, the commercial, but I’ve heard this argued many times, the purpose of zoning is to protect residential property. I mean, that’s the primary purpose of it.”
Mills said the changes would not affect the proposed restaurant on Washington Avenue, but would be for future drive-thru facilities. The city council will hold a public hearing Thursday in hopes of gathering some ideas from residents about the standards.
One topic of discussion was loud noises coming from drive-thrus, especially a 24-hour drive-thru in a neighborhood commercial zone. Council Member Ali Bagci said he would like something to be put in place to mitigate loud sounds.
“You don’t want a speaker facing your bedroom window or something like that,” Bagci said. “And of course, you would need some type of barrier that helps with sound, not only a cosmetic barrier but something that’s actually a functional sound barrier.”
Council Member Eric Walker said from what he could tell, the neighborhood commercial zone was the buffer zone to prevent issues like this from happening. The council mentioned possibly limiting drive-thrus in the specific zone from using a speaker during certain hours.
Community Development Director Jon Ward said it would be safer to compile a list of changes and resubmit the proposal back to the planning commission.
“This is your recommendation, take it back, get their re-review, and bring it back,” Ward said. “That’s what I would recommend we do if we want to make these changes, right. This is the planning commission recommended it, but you know, I think they would be open as well to considering some additional requirements.”
