PORTAGE | A second Texas-themed restaurant is set to be built along the U.S. 6 corridor.

Plan Commission members approved a re-plat and granted site approval for a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in the Augusta Center development, joining a Menard's home improvement store and strip mall Thursday night.

With the approved re-plat, two near-equal parcels were divided into one large parcel for the restaurant site and a small parcel for a temporary parking annex. City Planner Joe Csikos said the temporary parking lot of 86 spaces will be allowed for a two-year period, after which the developer must seek additional permission to use it for that purpose. As a temporary lot, the company will not have to install curbs. Csikos said the Louisville, Ky.-based restaurant needed more parking than the 76 spots on the site.

"Their corporate strategy requires additional parking," Csikos said.

Kevin Cleary with Oak Brook, Ill,-based Regency Centers, the project's developer, said they are close to finding a tenant to occupy the narrow lot, the size of which prohibits many uses.

Part of a nationwide chain of more than 300 restaurants specializing in steak, ribs, chicken and seafood, Texas Roadhouse locations serve dinner seven days a week and add lunch hours on weekends, unlike the nearby Texas Corral which serves lunch seven days a week.

The 7,135-square-foot restaurant will seat 239 diners and is scheduled to open in May. The Portage location would join one approved last month for construction in Dyer as the company's only Northwest Indiana restaurants. The nearest locations currently in operation are located in South Bend, Lafayette and Tinley Park, Ill.