Olive Garden, the American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian–American cuisine, submitted an engineered site plan to the City of Cartersville on June 22nd, and the first plan review meeting occurred yesterday.
An employee at Knights Inn told us they are selling their 2.11-acre property on East Church Street near its intersection with East Main Street to Olive Garden and that contractors will demolish the property next month.
Cartersville Planning and Development Director Randy Mannino said Olive Garden approached the city with a preliminary review before they submitted any plans and showed them the sites.
Olive Garden does not have to apply for rezoning as the property is zoned general commercial, which falls into their category.
Once Olive Garden’s engineers received feedback yesterday from the city’s departments involved in the development process, they could return with any revisions needed in two weeks. However, working out access issues may take at least a month, as East Church Street is the only entrance and exit.
East Church Street is a city road, but East Main Street is a part of State Route 113. So the city’s public works department will handle any modifications and coordinate with the Georgia Department of Transportation if necessary.
Again, these are just preliminary plans, and nothing is final.