VBT planners approve plans for second drive-thru at Culver’s

The parcel on which Culver’s restaurant is located at 11001 Belleville Rd. and the North I-94 Service Drive is five-sided and so the layout of the building and parking is complicated.
This is what the Van Buren Township Planning Commission was told by its planning consultant Vidya Krishnan of McKenna Associates at the commission’s regular meeting May 8.
After 45 minutes of discussing the site, the commission voted unanimously to grant both the preliminary and final site plan requests so Culver’s can start construction of a second drive-thru lane.
Mikel Currier, surveyor and engineer for the owner, said this franchisee owns 90 Culver’s restaurants throughout the country and is the company’s largest franchisee. He said they have completed 72 dual drive-thru’s throughout the Midwest.
Krishnan said the changes to the site include shortening a concrete walkway and altering another walkway and modifying the stacking of cars before and after the order stations, additional bike racks, and one-way striping.
Commissioner Bernie Grant said he has seen backups from the restaurant’s drive-thru line onto the North Service Drive and experienced it more than a couple times himself. He said he appreciates them trying to pull the waiting cars off the Service Drive.
He said when he sees them all stacked up with a long line, he drives right on by.
Commissioner Grant said their proposed remedy is based on being able to divide the waiting cars into two lines, but it is important that orders are taken quickly and filled quickly.
“Chances are you still will push people back to the Service Drive, but to a lesser degree,” Grant said, adding that the restaurant will make more money.
Currier said usually when he is working on upgrading a Culver’s site to have a second drive-thru, he thinks about the site and, “The sun shines on me,” and he has an idea that works.
“But this site was harder to deal with,” Currier said.
“It’s a good attempt, but I’m not 100% convinced that it will work … Let’s try it and see,” Grant said.
Krishnan said it was not an ideal site plan from the beginning, when it was first built.
Commissioner Peter Creal said a question to ask is if the changes are causing any additional harm. He said they will be making it so five more cars can line up.
Township Treasurer Sharry Budd, the board’s liaison to the commission, questioned how many people driving into the site could get through the lineup and make it to the parking area. She said with two lines each having their own cooks, they should be able to get the customers through faster.
Currier said the owners thought it would help.
Commissioner Jeff Jahr was concerned about cars trying to go the wrong way around the building and suggested they put some one-way striping and signs to keep the traffic going one way.
Currier said they could do that if the commission thought it would help.
Director of Municipal Services Ron Akers before the meeting had presented a report to commissioners put together with CLEMIS (Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System) figures showing seven traffic complaints for the site from 2021, 2023, and 2024, believed to be when waiting cars extended out onto the roadway. It was pointed out all of these complaints except two were between the hours of 7 and 9 p.m., which is not Culver’s busy time.
Commissioner Jahr said that might be the time people are coming in for ice cream.
“It’s a pretty good attempt to solve a problem,” Jahr said of the plan.
Commission chairman Brian Cullin said, “I don’t see it hurting, and if its going to help Culver’s be more successful…”