Mission BBQ, the Maryland-based chain of barbecue restaurants that announced last month that it had leased the former Pizza Hut building at 2631 Scottsville Road in Bowling Green, is moving forward with plans that involve demolishing that building and doing new construction on the site.

Launched in 2011 as a restaurant chain with a theme and business model that supports military, police and emergency responders, Mission BBQ was approved Thursday for a variance at the Scottsville Road site that includes a plan for a new building.

The 4.5-foot variance from the required 10-foot landscape buffer along a common property line is needed, according to the Mission BBQ application, in order to have adequate parking.

A narrative submitted with the application said: “The applicants want to use as much of the existing parking lot as possible, but because the existing building is being torn down and a new one being built right in the same place, the whole site is required to come into landscaping compliance.

“The applicants have brought the site into compliance as much as possible by adding landscape islands and additional trees and shrubs but cannot reach the required 10-foot average buffer … without losing required parking stalls.”

The application was approved unanimously by the seven-member board, clearing the way for Mission BBQ to move into a site that has been vacant for about a year.

Linda Dotterer, director of branding and community relations for Mission BBQ, said in an email that the chain plans to open the restaurant in the “winter of 2022-23.”

Founders Bill Kraus and Steve Newton launched Mission BBQ on Sept. 11, 2011, in Glen Burnie, Md., and have built restaurants decorated in patriotic themes that honor active military and veterans with free sandwiches during Armed Forces Week each May.

The restaurant chain also has a history of hiring veterans and donating food to local first responders and military personnel.

According to the mission-bbq.com website, the Bowling Green location will be the second Mission BBQ in Kentucky, joining one in Louisville. The chain has more than 100 locations across 18 states.

At Thursday’s meeting, the board of adjustments also approved a conditional-use permit for a topsoil-removal site along Cemetery Road near Drakes Creek, despite opposition from one neighboring resident.

Ronald Kinser applied for the permit for a mining facility only after he had already started removing topsoil from the 5.93-acre site and had received a code enforcement complaint.

The topsoil removal that has been occurring on the site for about a year is opposed by Cemetery Road resident Brian Palmer.

“The activity there has been disruptive, with the noise and dust,” Palmer said at Thursday’s meeting. “We oppose this use of the property.”

Palmer also said he feared that the topsoil removal could result in flooding of Kinser’s property and neighboring properties near Drakes Creek.

Chris Davenport, the attorney representing Kinser, disputed Palmer’s concerns.

“The entire area is pretty much agricultural,” Davenport said. “The cropping and livestock farming in the area are far less pleasurable to neighboring areas than topsoil removal.”

Davenport also suggested that topsoil removal posed no flooding threat downstream from the site.

“Removal of topsoil only lessens the impact because you’re not adding volume (of land),” he said. “You’re taking it out.”

Davenport admitted that Kinser began the topsoil removal before obtaining the proper permit, but he said his client is now taking steps to comply.

“This is the first of many things he will have to do to make sure he’s permitted correctly,” Davenport said.

Among the steps Kinser must take is remediation of the site after topsoil removal is completed, Davenport said.

“He’ll be asked to bring the property back (to its original position), probably by adding clay,” Davenport said.

In other action at Thursday’s meeting, the board of adjustments approved the CUP applications of David Witty of Elijah Properties LLC to operate short-term rentals on properties at 3885 Old Nashville Road Loop and at 1523 Park St.

The Old Nashville Road property consists of two eight-plex apartment buildings that are nearing completion, but Witty said he doesn’t intend to use all those apartments for the Airbnb-type short-term rentals.

“My intent is not to use all 16 units as short-term rentals,” he said. “I just want the option of doing that in some of the units. It gives me more flexibility.”

The Park Street property is a duplex that’s currently rented.

The CUP application for the Park Street property passed unanimously and the Old Nashville Road application passed 6-1, with John Fitts voting against it.