Taco Bell is seeking approval to demolish its longtime restaurant at 13830 Georgia Ave in Aspen Hill and replace it with a larger, modernized location.
Taco Bell wants to rebuild the existing restaurant from the ground up while continuing the same general use of the property. The location, situated in Northgate Plaza near the intersection of Georgia Ave and Aspen Hill Rd, has operated with a drive-thru for more than 30 years.
The proposed restaurant would be approximately 605 SF larger than the current building, with most of the additional space dedicated to the kitchen and other employee work areas. Despite the larger building, customer seating would decrease slightly from 52 to 48 seats, including 40 indoor seats and eight seasonal outdoor seats.
Plans also call for an updated exterior, a redesigned kitchen and improvements intended to make the drive-thru operate more efficiently. Taco Bell would add a second ordering board, order-confirmation technology and canopies for customers. The company says backups frequently occur at the ordering point and believes the changes would reduce wait times without increasing the anticipated number of customers.
The project would also add approximately 140 SF of green space, along with updated landscaping and native plants. Existing entrances and exits within the shopping center would remain unchanged. Because the restaurant’s drive-thru operates under zoning approvals originally granted in 1995, the property owner must receive approval to modify those permissions before moving forward with the redevelopment.
A traffic study submitted with the application determined that the rebuilt restaurant would create only a minimal increase in vehicle trips and would not negatively affect the surrounding road network. A construction timeline was not included in the application and Taco Bell awaits approval.
