By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The application for an eatery with a drive-through at 1076 Post Road East has been withdrawn.

A new application is expected.

The property at the corner of Post Road East and Church Street South, also known as 1060 Post Road East, was for decades a gas station, but was recently envisioned for an unnamed restaurant with a drive-through window.

Town Hall scuttlebutt indicated a Dunkin’ Donuts location was planned, but who knows …

Since that application was filed by architect Rick Hoag, the plug has been pulled on plans for an Amazon Fresh store, the would-be anchor of the Post Plaza shopping center.

And Big Y Supermarkets, a family-owned New England chain, has announced it would be moving in.

How Big Y figures into the equation for the corner property remains to be seen.

Hoag requested delays to his original eatery application to the Zoning Board of Appeals while he tried to iron out issues raised by neighbors, police and fire officials.

Drive-throughs are something of a needle-scratch in local zoning. Few have been approved in town, including a Starbucks about a block away (formerly Arby’s and before that Burger King). Others were for banks.

The Starbucks has seen drive-through traffic backing up onto the Post Road, and many people living on Church Street South and thereabouts expressed concerns about that happening on their narrow street.

Police and Fire Department officials weighed in on the plan, with serious concerns about getting emergency vehicles into the site during trouble.

The application was on the Zoning Board of Appeals agenda March 12, but wasn’t heard.

“The statutory timeline was running out, so they said they’re going to be coming back, and looking at their options based on their meeting with the fire marshal,” Deputy Planning and Zoning Director Michelle Perillie said at the board’s meeting Tuesday.

“They’re going to resubmit, but I don’t have anything yet,” she said.

“Now that Big Y is going to open, I don’t know if that changed anything,” she said.

“Over the last week, we have come up with a scheme that we believe will better satisfy all parties hence we think it makes sense to withdraw our application which will give us time to vet the new scheme with the fire dept & police department,” Hoag wrote to Perillie.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 36 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.