Fast food on the fast track: Taco Bell on the agenda

Planning Commission to vote on site plan for popular drive-through restaurant

Doug KeelerMidway Driller Editor

When city officials said they were going to fast track the permitting process for Taft's new Taco Bell, they weren't kidding.

The Taft Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday evening on the proposed site plan for the new fast food restaurant.

The restaurant is targeted to go in a vacant parcel on Kern Street just east of Hillard and just west of the West Kern Junction.

The proposed site plan calls for a 2,200 square foot drive-thru restaurant with 590-square feet of dining area and a capacity of 49 people.It will also have a drive-through that can hold a line of up to 9 cars.When open, it will employ approximately 25 people and operate from 4 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, according to a city staff report.

When the franchise owners announced the plans to bring Taco Bell back to Taft in late May, they said they were hoping to have it open by the end of the year.

Taft's previous Taco Bell was closed in late 2012 and reopened the next year as a Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen. The new Taco Bell will be immediately west of Popeye's.