It looked like a fatal blow to In-N-Out Burgers' plan to relocate to San Juan Capistrano when the City Council here voted to lift a moratorium on drive-up businesses -- but excluded the area In-N-Out was considering.
It turns out that one of Capistrano's Council members, Tom Hribar, owns an interest in a building within 500 feet of the site eyed by In-N-Out. That means while he could have voted on an ordinance pretaining to drive-up windows citywide, it likely created a conflict-of-interest when the In-N-Out site -- on Del Obispo Street housing a closed Sizzler restaurant now -- was exempted from the overall ordinance.
The modified measure passed on a split vote last month -- with Hribar, Laura Freese and Mark Nielsen supporting it and Mayor Lon Uso and Councilman Sam Allevato against it.
Although the vote was technically to lift the decade-old moratorium on drive-up windows in town, practically it became a vote on In-N-Out at the Del Obispo Street location, because the restaurant had already made its intentions known.
The revote will be interesting however: If Hribar just abstains from the modified proposal that prohibits the In-N-Out location, the measure will likely fail 2-2 and drive-ups will remained banned in the city. The council could also, however, vote on the full ordinance that made drive-ups OK at the proposed In-N-Out location. That puts the council in the position of allowing the In-N-Out there, or keeping the existing prohibition in place, which is preventing some needed rebuilds of existing fast foods.
The council meets at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, 32400 Paseo Adelanto.
Here's the staff report: Download Drive Through Ordinance
I'm hopeful that common sense will prevail.....NO IN- N- OUT ON DEL OBISPO and if that means no more fast food drive ups, so be it!!
Posted by: CA | May 03, 2010 at 08:30 PM