KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A popular fast food chain could be making a home in North Knoxville in the future. Cook Out has been proposed to be built along North Broadway.
While the area has its fair share of fast-food restaurants, not everyone in the community is excited. The proposal was discussed at Thursday’s Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission meeting to add Cook Out to the growing list.
The restaurant would be built at the corner of North Broadway and Edgewood Avenue. However, some residents are not very keen on having another fast food chain in that area.
“I’m worried a little bit about the neighborhood because it’s a really nice quiet little neighborhood,” Edgewood Avenue resident Monica Black said.
One major reason for the pushback was the heavy traffic that could be forced to navigate a small neighboring road.
“If there’s congestion on Edgewood for any reason, it would flow down that road to Claiborne Place,” Black said. “It’s a really small, little street with street parking on both sides and there’s already considerable Traffic issues on that road.”
She also said that the character of the neighborhood could be changed because of this high traffic flow.
To bring in a change of speed in terms of businesses along North Broadway, Black would like to see a variety of businesses, not just fast food chains.
“Maybe we could have some other kinds of businesses,” Black said. “I would really love to see the city do more to encourage small businesses and make it affordable on Broadway for those small businesses.”
Despite these potential negatives, there are some positives that are coming out of this proposal.
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“Some of the things he described look really nice actually,” Black said. “There’s going to be some beautiful landscaping with native trees, they’re going to improve the sidewalks and there is going to be a new bus stop.”
The developers for the proposed Cook Out said there would be a stacked drive-through, meaning, that there will be two lanes for the cars ordering food. This addition was proposed to alleviate traffic flow concerns.
As a result, the proposal passed by a vote of 12-1 in today’s meeting, sending this to City Council for further voting.