Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers will promote physical activity and safety when it opens its sixth Columbus, Ohio, restaurant on October 19.

In partnership with the Columbus Public Health’s Healthy Places Program, Raising Cane’s Hilliard, Ohio, location is installing five-foot sidewalks in front of its 2,700 square-foot building, which have shown to be more walkable for pedestrians, as well as a designated crosswalk from the public sidewalk to the front door, and bike racks.

According to Christine Green, Healthy Places’ coordinator, the purpose of the Healthy Places Program is to create an environment in which people can walk and bike more within the city of Columbus. By creating better community design to increase physical activity, the city and its corporate partners, like Raising Cane’s, can help decrease obesity and chronic disease.

To promote safety for its guests and crew members, Raising Cane’s also installed detectable warning pads where walkways meet vehicular traffic to protect pedestrians. Raising Cane’s worked closely with Dublin, Ohio–based M+A Architects to design and incorporate these key health and safety-oriented elements into its restaurant design.

“Working with the cities of Columbus and Hilliard to open our Hilliard restaurant has been an incredible journey,” says Tim McCarthy, Raising Cane’s Ohio Limited partner in business development. “Not only are we able to open a restaurant in a family-oriented community like Hilliard, but we can help promote a more active lifestyle for everyone along the way.”

Raising Cane’s Ohio (RCO) Limited, the Columbus-based Raising Cane’s franchisee, owns and operates five additional locations throughout the Columbus area.

With Columbus Public Health’s Healthy Places Program, Green reviews City of Columbus planning and rezoning projects to seek new ways to incorporate key elements for a healthier, safer, more environment-friendly lifestyle. Based on the recommendations made for Raising Cane’s, M+A Architects created design elements for each of the city’s lifestyle goals and presented them to Raising Cane’s.

Raising Cane’s is one of the only companies in the Columbus area to incorporate and fund all of the recommendations made by Columbus Public Health into its building design.

“Approximately 63 percent of companies incorporate some of the active living features, but it is rare that a company will incorporate all of the features,” Green says. “Our goal in the healthy places program is to make every place accessible to walking and biking, and Raising Cane’s is helping us do that.”

Green also says that only 49.3 percent of Franklin County residents meet the nation’s physical activity requirement, which means that about half of the population does not get enough physical activity. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends exercising 30 minutes or more per day most days of the week.

Raising Cane’s Hilliard restaurant is a 2,700 square-foot, free-standing building with enough room for 15 cars in the drive-thru lane. It will seat approximately 55 guests and employ 50 crew members.