Commission approves drive-thru proposal

Longtime local developer Todd Taylor gave a presentation to the planning commission Thursday detailing his plans for a restaurant/car wash/card-lock gas station to be built on the southwest corner of Railway and Arrowleaf in the northwest corner of what is now the Ray's Food Place parking lot, just south of the current Chevron/McDonald's complex.

No one else spoke in favor or against the proposed project, and the commission approved the application on a 5-0 vote. Commissioner Valerie Skelton abstained and Commissioner Darren Layne was absent.

Prior to Taylor's discussion of the project, Community Development Director Pauline Hardie gave a PowerPoint presentation detailing the city staff findings in support of the project which includes a 3,200-square-foot restaurant with drive-up window, an 1,862-square-foot car wash, and an unmanned "card-lock" Pacific Pride gas station. The property is currently owned by Todd and Lorri Taylor.

Taylor discussed the early vision for Outlaw Station that he shared with the planning commission five or six years ago.

"There was a lot of discussion about what type of services could best be provided on the outskirts of Sisters, knowing that some of the services being provided were the areas that were providing some of the largest congestion," said Taylor. "We spent a lot of time looking at what this development would look like over the next 20 years."

Taylor continued, "The quality of the project in our vision has stayed the same, and that is that we make sure we can provide some of these services that do require higher traffic volumes in an area that doesn't take away from the downtown core."

Taylor is targeting having a tenant for the restaurant identified by the spring or summer of 2014 with occupancy of the complex completed by the end of 2014.

The commissioners expressed few if any concerns about the project. Commissioner Skelton explained that she works for Hayden Homes, and as such she would be selling the multi-family homes across the street from the proposed project. Her abstention was based on her concern for how the potential late-night truck traffic to the 24/7 card lock gas facility might impact her future customers.

The review of the airport annexation agreement was on the agenda for review for Thursday's meeting but was postponed to the October 3 meeting to allow staff to make some late-arriving changes to the agreement. This would put the restaurant complex and the airport annexation before the city council for their October 10 meeting.