Anyone who thought the 5-Points Chick-fil-A proposal dead was being naive. A new plan, proposed by the chain’s attorneys and architects, found a better reception today at a Birmingham Design Review sub-committee meeting.

Proposed 5-Points Chick-fil-A site plan.

“The idea is to make it look like Chick-fil-A moved into a building that was there rather than they tried to make a Chick-fil-A building look like it was there,” Chick-fil-A lawyer Charlie Beavers said.

The new plan moves the building flush with the corner sidewalk and would be more aesthetically contiguous with the immediate neighborhood. However, the two versions of the plan presented to the committee Tuesday still feature the controversial drive-through which has drawn consternation from the neighborhood.

The site plan puts the chain’s parking and drive-through behind the building. The restaurant would have 6,500 sq. ft. of dining space and 49 parking places.

Committee members indicated to the developer that the new plan was much more acceptable than previous site plans the committee had rejected.

“The context is the most important thing, it just shows how it fits with it all there,” committee member Cheryl Morgan told the developers.

The building’s facade is still in question, and the developer has yet to complete conceptual drawings of how it would fit into the neighborhood.

“The best thing you ‘ve shown us today is that you can create a street frontage that stretches around that corner,” committee member Don Cosper said.

Representatives from Chick-fil-A still claim a 46-second order time at the drive through, but that figure only applies to the time from the order board to the service window, not the total time spent in line.