There’s proposal for a new Chick-fil-A, this time west of the Narrows bridge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chick-fil-A proposal targets Gig Harbor site for drive-thru only restaurant.
- Planned design includes two-lane drive-thru, 52 spaces, and outdoor seating.
- City staff await traffic study and more information.
Representatives for Chick-fil-A have been in contact with city planning staff in Gig Harbor over a possible new location not far from a major intersection.
In October, a pre-application was filed with the city for a “proposed drive-thru only, quick service restaurant.” The proposal from 4G Development & Consulting, Inc. stated that it was being filed “on behalf of the applicant who wishes to remain anonymous currently.”
4G has previously been associated with Chick-fil-A proposals sent to other municipalities, including Tacoma, and a scoping traffic memo submitted in April listed the project as a Chick-fil-A.
Gig Harbor Now was the first to report on the proposed site development over the weekend.
The proposal calls for demolition of existing buildings at the site that’s currently a Chevron gas station, 5115 Olympic Dr. in Gig Harbor.
The location is directly across Olympic Drive from Harbor Plaza Shopping Center and its Metropolitan Market anchor, and is just west of the major Olympic Drive and Point Fosdick Drive intersection.
According to the project narrative, “The proposed building will be a 2,631 square foot with two drive-thru lanes, a trash enclosure, and two exterior drive-thru canopies. The preliminary site plan proposes 52 parking spaces.”
It adds, “This site design allows adequate circulation in the parking lot and will ensure that the queue does not spill out into the public right-of-way.”
It stated that there would be no indoor seating but rather 46 patio seats, and the “proposed hours of operation” would be 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., closed Sundays.
“The dual drive-thru lane will provide space to queue 42 vehicles. Each lane of the drive-thru will have a menu board for ordering. Customers may place orders in the drive-thru via digital menu boards with speakers or directly through employees with handheld computer pads and portable receipt printers,” it stated.
“Once the order is placed via one of the above methods, the customer will continue to move forward in the queue approaching the order pickup area at the end of the drive-thru. The operations team utilize a drive-thru door with a built-in pickup window, as well as employees acting as food runners who serve guests within designated areas in or around the drive-thu lanes.”
Traffic
City officials in the past have enforced traffic-mitigation measures for major new developments near the Point Fosdick/Olympic Drive intersection.
Easement issues that slowed secondary access improvements from 32nd Avenue were among issues that led to months of delays in 2017 for a new Fred Meyer opening at 5502 Point Fosdick Dr.
For Chick-fil-A, city officials recommended further traffic analysis beyond the preliminary example submitted via a traffic scoping memo. The traffic scoping memo, submitted by TENW (Transportation Engineering Northwest) based preliminary trip generating estimates from a study of a drive-thru site in Bellevue.
“Please provide 2 other studies at similar locations closer geographically (like Tacoma). A study of one data set is not sufficient to demonstrate trip assumptions,” a staff markup comment noted in the scoping memo.
Access to the site is proposed from two existing driveways, one on Olympic Drive and the other on 32nd Avenue.
“A variance will be required to have two driveways,” according to staff comments. “The city is likely going to require a landscaped median with ground cover on Olympic,” to limit traffic to right in/right out turning movements for the Olympic entrance/exit.
The markup also requested a new traffic count “with full turning movements” to be required at the intersections of Point Fosdick and Olympic; Olympic and 32nd; 32nd and 56th; and 56th and Olympic.
“Typically counts are collected when school is in session to accurately depict the majority of the year,” the comments noted.
The markup comments also called upon the project’s traffic analyst to analyze “all peaks” in traffic.
“The city will be interested to see what Chick-fil-A’s peak is,” the comment noted.
Comments included in the initial markup also noted concern about the planned parking lot configuration, as well as size of the 32nd Avenue driveway, which the comments noted “will be required to be removed and replaced with a wider driveway to accommodate vehicle turning movements.”
Lori Maricle, communications manager for the City of Gig Harbor, told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that the current permit application is incomplete, “so the city can’t give feedback on what may or may not be allowable on this site.”
She said further details on where the project stands will be included in an upcoming city newsletter.
The site’s owner did not immediately respond to requests for comment on July 14.
Not the first proposal for site
City permit records show a different proposal was floated, then later withdrawn, for the same location in 2023. Those plans proposed a Cyber Express Car Wash and a drive-thru coffee stand.
As for Chick-fil-A, it is not its first drive-thru-only plan floated in the area.
A similar drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A site was proposed at the former House of Kee property in Puyallup. That plan called for 61 parking stalls with 26 exterior seats and no interior seats.
That site now appears to be headed toward development as a Take 5 Oil Change, according to county records.
A similar land-scoping inquiry also occurred last summer involving a proposed drive-thru-only Chick-fil-A location at a property near Bass Pro Shops in Tacoma’s South End. No further filings have occurred with that parcel.
The Atlanta-based chicken chain’s most recent expansion in Pierce County was as a vendor at the Tacoma Dome earlier this year.
Amanda Calhoun, a media representative for Chick-fil-A, told Gig Harbor Now in a prepared statement, “While we hope to bring new restaurants to the Gig Harbor community in the future, we do not currently have any locations to confirm.”
Calhoun on July 14 told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that as for other locations in the county, “there haven’t been any new developments regarding Pierce County restaurants.”
The chain has locations in Tacoma, Fircrest, Lakewood, Puyallup and Bonney Lake, among other sites.
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
