By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Plans to expand GTO's restaurant to include indoor seating are looking more likely to receive approval.

Fayetteville Planning Commission members during their work session last week seemed willing to cut the restaurant some slack as they consider how much the existing building will have to be modified before they will approve the addition.

Development plans for the expansion are on the action agenda for the commission's July 27 meeting, 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

GTO's was built using different, older development regulations, and city ordinances state that in such cases, when a business adds on it must upgrade to the newer rules, as much as is practical.

Planning director Jahnee Prince told commission members last week that although the restaurant's lighting doesn't conform to current rules, it's so close that it wouldn't be practical to replace it.

The restaurant also must build sidewalks, but Prince suggested the group might put off that requirement until businesses are built on either side of it. Otherwise, GTO's would be building a sidewalk to nowhere, she said.

“They have agreed to install the sidewalks whenever the properties to the north or south build theirs,” she said.

The restaurant proposes to build a 370-sq. ft. addition to accommodate customers who want to dine inside.

The '50s style drive-through concept works fine when the weather is good, said owner Charles Oddo in a previous meeting, but when storm clouds rise, his profits plummet, he said.