Photo provided Olive Garden has site plan and other approvals to locate a restaurant in Kohl’s parking lot in Columbus, according to city officials.
What was once just a rumor, a wish, most often a plea, is about to come true. Columbus’ long-time longing for an Olive Garden restaurant has been rewarded. It may be time to start having visions of unlimited breadsticks.
Talk of an Olive Garden coming to Columbus has been percolating on social media in the past couple of weeks, and officials confirmed to The Republic that the appropriate documentation has been approved by the city, putting the arrival of the restaurant in motion.
Olive Garden is planning a location at 975 Creekview Drive, a new lot being created from the Kohl’s parking lot at the southeast corner of 10th Street and Creekview Drive.
Planning Director Jeff Bergman said a zoning compliance certificate for the future building and site development was approved by his department in December and a certificate regarding signs on the restaurant was approved on March 17.
The Olive Garden franchisee is also required to get a building permit from the Bartholomew County Department of Technical Code Enforcement, which county officials said Tuesday is in the process of being approved.
The last step to making the restaurant a reality is a subdivision plat creating the lot. That has also been submitted, Bergman said, and construction can begin in the meantime. There is no construction underway yet, but there is an excavator sitting in the Kohl’s parking lot.
In between discussion involving a right-of-way dedication and bridge work during a meeting of the Bartholomew County commissioners on Monday, Commissioner Carl Lienhoop, R-Distrct 2, asked Bergman if a photo hinting at the prospect was accurate.
“Was it a lie? It probably was,” Lienhoop mused. “It showed an excavator that claimed that they were getting ready for the new Olive Garden in Kohl’s parking lot.”
After cautioning the general veracity of things the public sees on social media, Bergman said the Olive Garden rumor was, in fact, true.
But Bergman also noted recent history and how a potential franchisee of the Italian chain had obtained all the required documentation for an Olive Garden at the same location about 12 years ago, but nothing ever came to fruition.
“We’ll let construction begin before we say for sure,” Bergman said.
