Site work begins for Panda Express on South Ninth Street in Salina
Earthmoving equipment is working the lot where Panda Express plans to build a Salina restaurant, on the east side of Market Place along South Ninth Street.
Crews with a wheel loader, a scraper and a motor grader were moving dirt on the property this week, which sits between the Market Place Apartments and Sam's Club, with homes behind a wood fence on the far side of the lot.
City planning documents describe a 2,827-square-foot fast-casual restaurant with a drive-thru on a 1.1-acre lot, Lot 4, Block 1 of the Replat of Nine South Addition. The property is zoned PC-5, planned service commercial, and is owned by Nine South Development LLC. The site plan calls for two drive-thru lanes, 58 dine-in seats and 56 parking spaces, with access from two driveways off a private drive that connects to Market Place. The building would stand 22 feet tall.
The project cleared two city reviews this year. The Salina Board of Zoning Appeals voted 5-0 on May 21 to allow 56 parking spaces, 25 more than the 31 city code normally allows for the site. The Salina Planning Commission approved the final site development plan, application SDP26-002, on July 7.
Conditions attached to that approval include a revised landscaping plan with at least 60% living plant material, semi-trailer deliveries limited to hours when the restaurant is closed, and standard permitting requirements. Henry Klover of H.C. Klover Architect, who filed the application on behalf of Panda Express, told commissioners the project team agreed with the conditions and said the restaurant typically takes deliveries before a 10:30 a.m. opening.
Stormwater runoff from the lot will drain to a shared detention pond that serves the Nine South Addition. City Engineer Rex Ritter told the Planning Commission the pond is designed to release water no faster than the land did before development and that the restaurant would not worsen existing street ponding near Neal and Highland avenues.
The Panda Express project was listed for construction bidding in an online plan room Oct. 28, covering work from earthwork and concrete to plumbing, electrical and landscaping.
An opening date for the Salina restaurant has not been set.
