BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Another chicken restaurant is coming to Eagle Road.
Earlier this month, the Meridian City Council approved Raising Cane’s drive-thru plans following a Planning and Zoning Commission decision in September. The drive-thru permit was officially approved by the council during a meeting on Nov. 6. The fast food joint will be located on 2700 N Eagle Road, sandwiched between two other chicken drive-thrus: Dave’s Hot Chicken on 3450 N Eagle Road and Chick-fil-A on 2012 N Eagle Road.
This will be the first Raising Cane’s in Idaho. The popular fried chicken fingers restaurant first opened in Louisiana in 1996 and now operates in about half of the U.S.’s 50 states — but locations are sparse in the northwest, with eight locations in Utah, two in Oregon and none in Washington or the Gem State, according to the Raising Cane’s website.
However, the approval of the Raising Cane’s drive-thru did not come without discussion or concerns from the council — most of them about traffic, safety and mobility on Eagle Road.
”We’re having some of these drive-thrus coming in ... we already have a couple in our city. The difference between them and (Cane’s) is they are in a large development that’s on private property, so when they get stacking issues that are huge, it affects that private property. It doesn’t affect public roadways,” Council member John Overton said.
Eagle Road has doubled in driver volume since 2000, now reaching up to 60,000 vehicles a day, the Idaho Press previously reported. The restaurant is expected to open by the end of 2025.
Raising Cane’s is proposing two drive-thru lanes with a bypass lane, Raising Cane’s spokesperson Michael O’Reilly said. The restaurant is also proposing a 35-foot landscape buffer between the site and Eagle Road and a 10-foot buffer on northern access to the site, O’Reilly said. The site will also have around 35 parking spots and allows for 45 vehicles to be in the drive-thru queue, O’Reilly said.
”Raising Cane’s average service time for an order is two minutes and 28 seconds,” O’Reilly said.
In their site configuration, the drive-thru queue will have space for 15 vehicles between the order board and window, which would allow for around 360 orders in an hour without “excessive queuing,” O’Reilly said.
”This is going to well exceed the total peak hour demand calculated at about 115 trips in the peak hour, so we wouldn’t expect excessive queuing,” O’Reilly said.
Similar to other drive-thus like In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A and Dutch Bros, Raising Cane’s will have crew members taking orders in the drive-thru lanes on tablets. The establishment is also known to deploy police officers to control traffic and manage onsite parking, if things get backed up, O’Reilly said.
However, the drive-thru could prove to be different from other local spots because the Cane’s menu only has five items on it, Cane’s spokesperson RV Vann said.
”(The drive-thru) would certainly never be stacked up on Eagle Road,” Vann said. “It’s not going to be a static situation, it’ll be constantly moving.”
There will be a 120-room hotel and several apartment complexes to the east and southeast of the Raising Cane’s site. To address future traffic concerns, a traffic engineering firm called Kittelson & Associates, Inc. performed a traffic study for the areas surrounding Cane’s.
”This is a company that wants to be here for 20 or 30 years, serving the community and doing a good job,” O’Reilly said. “And I think the site plan more than accommodates that and keeps traffic from being a continuing nuisance.”
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
