December’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting should be an interesting one: The commission will review a site plan for a new restaurant; and hear a requested zone change for a project that appears to be a new distillery on Lebanon Road.

Public filings for both projects were available this week from the P&Z office. Neither are a sure thing — P&Z must first consider the initial applications, and there would be several other steps before either project became a reality.

Buffalo Wings & Rings

A proposed site plan for a Buffalo Wings & Rings restaurant shows the company is interested in opening a location off the south end of the Danville U.S. 150 Bypass, next to the newly opened Cattlemen’s Steakhouse.

The nearly-6,000-square-foot restaurant would have a pair of entrances off of Commerce Street, the road that intersects with the bypass before turning into Daniel Drive on the north side, according to the preliminary site plan.

Buffalo Wings & Rings first publicized its desire to open a location in Danville back in February.

“I think we would like to be on the south side where there is the bypass,” Philip Schram, chief development officer for the restaurant chain, said at the time. “Typically, we do well when we are with the other casual dining restaurants.”

The owner of Buffalo Wings and Rings, Shaun Hill, had previously approached Boyle County Judge-Executive Harold McKinney and expressed interest in the Danville area in April of 2011, said Jody Lassiter, CEO of the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership, in February.

“He invited Judge McKinney and me to visit what then was the new Bardstown store,” Lassiter said at the time. “We soon took the opportunity to go there for one of our monthly lunch meetings. I followed up with Mr. Hill in an email … and he advised that it would take some time before he was ready to launch his next location since the Bardstown store had just opened.”

Schram said in February that Buffalo Wings and Rings locations are generally 5,000-6,000 square feet with 50-60 TVs. As many as 60 people can be employed at one location, he said.

The company is headquartered in Cincinnati and has around 70 locations, including 55 in the U.S. and others in the middle east, Schram said.

“We have a fairly large number in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio,” Schram said. “The second big chunk is in Texas.”

Distillery project

A zone-change request that could allow construction of a new distillery along Lebanon Road has also been filed with the P&Z office.

According to a letter that will be sent to adjoining property owners next week, the Boyle County Industrial Foundation has applied for the zone change from agricultural-residential (AR) to industrial business development (IBD) for approximately 142 acres just west of Wilderness Trail Distillery.

A map of the plans for the land includes a “presentation center and office” with parking spaces at the entrance off of Lebanon Road. Behind that, there would be a “distillery” with its own parking lot and 17 “rickhouses,” warehouses that are used to store barrels of alcoholic drinks as they age. The map also notes an “access road to Wilderness Trail Distillery” as part of the plan.

No company name for the distillery is identified on the documents obtained from P&Z by The Advocate-Messenger.

Lassiter said he is familiar with the project but “I cannot comment at this preliminary stage.”

Wilderness Trail Distillery is itself currently in the middle of an approximately $9.9 million expansion that is projected to sextuple its output of bourbon and distilled spirits and add 10 new jobs.

IF YOU GO

The Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold its next regular meeting at 9 a.m. on Dec. 6, at Danville City Hall.