The Sandy Springs city council has rightfully rejected an application for a 24/7 drive-thru. See this coverage from Rough Draft, and the earlier coverage of a Sandy Springs planning commission agreeing to extend hours to be 24/7.
Speakers at the meeting reasonably pointed out that neighboring residences would be disturbed by the light and noise coming from a 24/7 drive-thru.
Huntington Place resident Adrianne Murchison said the greatest issue she had was the 24-hour drive-through. Moving the drive-through to the back of the building wouldn’t make much of a difference, she said, as the back of the townhomes face the site.
“That leaves residents exposed to the speaker system, customer voices, cars idling, headlights shining towards our windows,” Murchison said.
Here's a link to the city council meeting, https://www.youtube.com/live/I9yISch6Cz4. At 57:10 they begin discussing the drive thru. I highly recommend listening to the comments of both speakers in opposition, especially this from Ronda Smith, president of the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods:
The comprehensive plan identified that "along its commerical corridors and especially Roswell Rd the city lacks true walking environments and the goal", one of the 10 for the next 10, was to "convert Roswell Rd into a pedestrian friendly boulevard". Again if we don't start somewhere to move the needle on Roswell Rd we will never get anywhere to improve it.
This touches on the safety risks of drive-throughs without really digging in to what they represent for the local community, especially a 24/7 fast food drive-through along a stroad like Roswell Rd. Sandy Springs does not need to appeal to drivers passing through our communities to get a burger, especially at night when the risk of crashes is especially high.
The closest they come to addressing safety head on is council member Paulson saying, in the context of asking the developer about sound mitigation,
obviously everybody's nightmare is two in the morning some guy pulls up drunk yelling "I want fries with that burger." How do you mitigate that? What can you do to mitigate that noise level that comes? Not the guy yelling, you can't really keep that from happening, but what can you do
My worst nightmare related to a drunk in a drive through at two in the morning is not noise. Council member Paulson is responding to the concern of residents, and I get that, but tangentially referring to drunk driving and ignoring the risk of death or serious injury is unacceptable. He has a responsibility to all residents of Sandy Springs and he should prioritize minimizing the risk of crashes caused by drunk driving.
There is a lot of time spent discussing building articulation. I don't really care, but I do disagree with the revealed prioritization.
Also unmentioned is what neighbors lose when commercial land is used for a drive-through. In general, if people in their bedrooms can readily hear drive through customers and see their headlights, then they could instead be walking distance to a cafe with outdoor dining that's not surrounded by loud and carcinogen emitting idling cars. They could have easy access to an urgent care or a pharmacy if they're unable to drive, in general or due to a medical issue. A fast food drive through is an amenity for customers driving through the area, not for the people living there already. A drive through can fundamentally make sense on a remote highway off-ramp where almost the only people in the area are driving through. By contrast, they do not make sense in the middle of Sandy Springs along Roswell Rd. The Sandy Springs city council should reject future applications and take action to remediate existing locations, so that the land can be used in ways that do more to benefit residents of Sandy Springs while not contributing as much to the risk of motor vehicle crashes.
