Developer wants to bring 4 new restaurants to Bossier

Members of the Bossier City-Parish Metropolitan Planning Commission's board said they would like more information before they recommend a rezoning request that could bring four new restaurants to Airline Drive north of Interstate 220 in Bossier City.

A preliminary hearing was held at the MPC’s monthly meeting, where Matt Delaney of Momentum Commercial Development answered questions about plans to bring several “national” restaurants to the area.

To do so, Momentum is requesting that a tract of land totaling about 4.4 acres near the GreenAcres Place subdivision on Airline Drive be rezoned from B-2 (limited business) to B-3 (general business) for future commercial use.

“We’re talking to half a dozen national restaurants that are ones that are not in the market at the moment,” Delaney said. “Some serve alcohol, some don’t, but they require the B-3 zoning and usually stay open until midnight. One of them is a sister company to the Olive Garden across the street, similar, so we’re getting the zoning straight for them to start with.”

Delaney was encouraged by board members to come back with more detailed plans for a public hearing that will take place during the MPC’s June 11 meeting, anticipating possible concerns from residents.

Board members noted that GreenAcres Place residents previously expressed concerns about how bright and how high the lighting and signage would be when Walgreens wanted a zoning change across the street from the subdivision on Airline Drive.

Delaney said his company had spoken with some of the residents around the area to make sure they knew what was going to happen there.

He also said the new restaurants would not be anything of lesser quality than Olive Garden, and the potential businesses would be names everyone knows — they’re just not in this market yet.

Delaney did not name the new restaurants that might be coming to the area. MPC board members asked Delaney for more specifics on the development, including how many buildings the plans would entail and what kinds of restaurants would be there.

“One of them is like an ice cream (shop), so it’s a drive-through similar to like Smoothie King or something like that,” Delaney said. “The way it’s planned right now is we’re looking at four restaurants. Two of them would have alcohol, two of them wouldn’t.”