By Megan Ashley Fink

The Natchez Democrat

 

NATCHEZ — Plans for a new Applebee’s restaurant on John R. Junkin Drive are on the agenda for the Natchez planning commission meeting today.

Quality Restaurants Concepts LLC which aims to locate the restaurant in Natchez must go before the planning commission to request permission to build the restaurant closer to their lot boundaries than is usually allowed.

The chain would build a new structure in what is currently a corner of the Natchez Mall’s parking lot.

Representatives with the Tabani Group, which owns the mall, will also appear before the commission requesting to sell part of its land to the restaurant developers.

City Planner Riccardo Giani said that the Applebee’s would not be able to use the lot unless both requests are granted.

Other applications on the planning commission’s agenda include a special exception to allow a bar or nightclub on Martin Luther King Jr. Street in the B-2 zoning district and a permit for the operation of a bed and breakfast on North Wall Street.

The planning commission recently denied an application for a bar or nightclub to to open in the former Dimples Lounge location on Main Street in the B-3 district. The decision was appealed to the board of aldermen and subsquently denied.

The planning commission is scheduled to meet at 5:15 p.m. in the Natchez City Council Chambers.