Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Hartland Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday gave final approval for Chick-Fil-A to demolish the old Big Boy and build new on that location off M-59 just east of U.S. 23.

There was little discussion heading into the final vote.

"You've seen this project through multiple phases of this. Being the final PD, this is really the final documents. We're not reviewing a site plan. Anything at this point is strictly approving the final legal documents of the project," said Township Manager Mike Luce.

The move comes months after the fast-food giant backed away from its initial proposal for the former Burger King on the southside of M-59 due to residents' concerns over traffic congestion.

"Our goal with this site was to use as much as the infrastructure as possible," a representative from Chick-Fil-A had previously stated. "Obviously, the building would not be reused, but the majority of the parking lot we're going to keep as is and try to do a mill and overlay to give it that fresh look."

While Chick-Fil-A was in talks with MDOT about minimizing congestion along M-59, the Livingston County Road Commission made no recommendations since the restaurant plans to access existing traffic patters already in place.

"There is a current access from Hartland Road that comes in. It is in only, so this would not be an exit. It would just be an entrance to the site," Planning Director Troy Langer told the commission in December.

"There's an access from M-59 that would be in, right turning. And then right turn out only. So there would be no left turn movement from this particular access. The backside is a private road called Rovey, and this would connect to Rovey and would have in as well as out traffic movement."