Letter To The Editor: Chick-fil-A In Arnold

Dear County Executive Steuart Pittman,

You are recognized as a leader and listener, so I want to share deep concerns about the safety of a proposed drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A at 1500 Ritchie Highway in Arnold. The Arnold Preservation Council and residents from the communities including Pines on the Severn, Winchester on the Severn, Arnold Manor, Ashcroft, Indian Hills/Glen Eden and Mago Vista share similar concerns and have expressed them at community forums.

Simply stated: a Chick-fil-A restaurant at the proposed location would cause dangerous and irreversible safety and environmental impacts. This Chick-fil-A would contribute unacceptable additional traffic that would further jeopardize public safety in an area that has documented three traffic-related fatalities since 2019. One puzzling aspect of this proposal is the inclusion of over 42 parking spaces for a drive-thru-only operation.

The project, if approved, would sit just north of Route 50 and immediately south of the Arnold Road/Ritchie Highway intersection. It would occupy a tiny parcel adjacent to an existing CVS and behind a Sunoco gas station. Access would be via Arnold Road and southbound Ritchie Highway, where traffic routinely exceeds the posted 50 mph speed limit. Arnold Road is already overtaxed as it services the busy Arnold Station shopping center and serves as the primary access point for communities of nearly 400 households.

Any reasonable traffic study would demonstrate that Arnold Road can't safely sustain the increased car and other traffic that Chick-fil-A's attract. It's concerning that the restaurant would be located less than 100 yards from the B&A bike trail, and there are no accommodations for foot or bike traffic from the trail. Another safety issue will be the increased traffic flow in the CVS parking lot used to access the restaurant.

Even the nearby community of Indian Hills/Glen Eden, located a half mile to the south, would suffer from diners traveling southbound to make a U-turn on Ritchie Highway to return to northbound travel after visiting the restaurant. Traffic studies also don't mention plans to expand Route 2 north from Route 50 to the Arnold Road intersection.

These studies also fail to mention existing stacking issues at the Arnold Road intersection and common sense informs it will worsen with this project. One need only look at the Chick-fil-A locations in Severna Park and Annapolis to see the congestion that is generated and where the high volume of customer traffic routinely and illegally overflows, and dangerously stacks onto public highways. And these locations sit on much larger parcels that are better suited for commercial traffic.

I recognize that this Chick-fil-A proposal, in the works since 2019, must go through the rigorous planning and zoning process. But you should know that many residents see this as an unnecessary, ill-advised development and that common sense says that it would be a monumental mistake to build a Chick-fil-A at this location.

Jim Scott

Arnold resident