At last Monday evening’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, commissioners heard from Fairfield County Bank representatives interested in changing their current drive-through option for customers from single-lane access to double. Chief among the reasons, according to the attorney representing the bank, is safety.
“They have an ATM machine on the wall to the south of the drive through. They would like to move that to the island, west of the drive through window. They’re not looking to establish a second window, just move the ATM,” explained Casey Healy, a lawyer with Gregory & Adams who was representing the bank. He was there with Fairfield County Bank vice president and branch manager Carol Johnson.
As Healy explained to the commissioners, because there are no dedicated parking spaces for ATM customers, quite often they will pull up and park next to the ATM (as shown in the picture, left), positioned directly in front of the drive-through window lane. As a result, traffic exiting the drive-through lane can be impeded, even if the ATM customers try to park a little further up.
He also added that “sometimes customers will leave children in a parked car, to use the ATM, even though you’re not supposed to,” and that troubling behavior was another reason bank officials wanted to make the adjustment, moving the ATM to its own dedicated lane.
But what most concerns bank officials, however, are the potential safety hazards. “A lot of people coming off the ATM, they don’t pay attention and they step into the crosswalk or into the lane. You can have vehicles which may not see them and we believe it’s a safety issue,” Healy said.
Johnson agreed, saying that in her 16-plus years with the branch she was surprised no one had gotten hurt, and the bank is concerned that the situation, as it exists now, “is an accident waiting to happen.”
P&Z commissioner Sally Poundstone expressed her own support for the potential changes. “I think this is wonderful. I don’t know why there hasn’t been a serious accident there, the faster we can deal with this the better.”
As part of his presentation to the commission, Healy called the history of current town regulations about drive-through facilities “curious,” noting that the statutes as written in 1994 specifically permitted only one drive through facility, versus facilities in the plural, at least for Wilton Center. (More curious still, as Healy explained, prior to 1994 there were no limitations on the number of drive throughs for banks. But town officials didn’t want to permit drive through facilities for any other type of business—most specifically fast food restaurants.)
The commission left open for debate whether or not the change Fairfield County Bank is interested in pursuing would require regulation change or a site plan review application specific to this location.
Healy added that with an already existing lane on the other side of the island, construction would be minimal, he said.