On the agenda for the February 21st agenda for Plymouth Township’s Zoning Hearing Board is an application from Chipolte Mexican Grill, Inc., for the property at 550 West Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting. This property consists of a parking lot and a vacant bank building. It is not under the same ownership as the Plymouth Meeting Mall but does fall under the same “shopping center” zoning district.

From the agenda:

CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL, INC. (WV UNIVERSAL, LLC): On an application for Variances from Plymouth Township Zoning Ordinance No. 342, as amended, Article XI, Section 1101.J.4 and Article XVII, Section 1700.D.5. The Variances requested are as follows: To allow a 29.5’ side yard setback, where a minimum of 50’ is required; to allow 25 parking spaces, where a minimum of 57 spaces is required.

The property is located at 550 W Germantown Pike in a “Shopping Center” Zoning District.

While we are not sure if this is the reason for this specific potential location (based on the limited information available on the agenda), Chipolte is currently moving towards standalone locations that offer a window for pickup. These are not traditional drive-thru restaurants. They only permit online ordering (so there is no place to place an order on-site), but have pick-up windows for vehicles and walk-ups. This format also has outdoor seating.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the location within the mall would close. According to an article in QSRMagazine.com, Chipolte is currently looking to expand its number of stores and is infilling markets it already serves.

More to come.