A piece of property off Covington Bypass Road in Porterdale, across from the Burger King, was rezoned Thursday night in preparation to become a Waffle House.

Porterdale’s Planning and Zoning Board unanimously voted to change a 12.56-acre piece of land that touches the Covington bypass Road and Elm Street Aly from agricultural to general commercial zoning. The motion, made by Yogi Wilkerson and given a second by Jeanne Rue, was passed with the condition that the owner of the property pay the cost for extending a water main along the entire frontage of the property.

Waffle House Architect Joe Hoffman, in speaking to the board, said his company was willing to do that. However, in order to meet ordinances for having a fire hydrant on a property, the size of the water main is required to be eight inches. The Porterdale City Council expressed their desire to the planning and zoning board that the pipe be 12 inches in size, allowing for potential future industrial growth.

The upgrade from eight- to 12-inch pipe will be paid for by Porterdale as part of the condition placed on the zoning change.
Waffle House has yet to purchase the property from Four Site Holdings but has begun doing its due-diligence, which includes lining up the proper zoning and doing soil analysis.

The next step would be for Waffle House to purchase the property, and present its building plan to the Porterdale City Council.

Hoffman said Waffle House will expand the road where needed and put in a deceleration lane entering the restaurant. He also said the proposed restaurant will comply with Porterdale’s zoning asthetics and not have the traditional Yellow facades of many other Waffle Houses.

“Basically it will be an all-brick structure with the little pop up, cornice enhancements with the medallion and goose-neck lamps,” Hoffman said.

While the building of the popular 24-hour restaurant is far off, the first steps for a Waffle House in the Porterdale city limits were made with the approval of board members Wilkerson, Rue, Ryan Barrrett, Rhea Spence, Milt Thomas and Marsha Sheets Thursday.

There are currently six Waffle House restaurants in Newton County — located at: 13091 Brown Bridge Road, 10245 Highway 142, 10106 Alcovy Road, 6137 Highway 278, 8239 Highway 278 and 10690 Covington By-Pass.