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Buellton’s City Council rejected a proposal for an In-N-Out Burger last week voicing concerns about the popular fast-food chain’s impact to traffic in the area.
In January 2022, an Initial Project Submittal was received for the project site at 515 McMurray Road. The Marriott hotel is to the north, Highway 101 to the west, McDonald’s restaurant to the south, and a vacant parcel planned for future hotel development across McMurray Road to the east.
The proposed project includes demolishing the existing structure, which was previously operated as Parks Plaza Movie Theater, and construction of a new 3,885 sq. ft. fast food restaurant with a 25 car capacity drive-through lane and 54 parking spaces.
The city’s planning department approved the project in October, but a local resident appealed the decision citing inconsistency with Buellton’s General Plan and the potential to cause hazardous traffic conditions along McMurray Road and the SR-246.
This brought a lengthy discussion during Thursday’s city council meeting, mostly centered on the potential for vehicles to back up along the northbound Highway 101 offramp.
Several agencies weighed in on the project including John Olejnik, Transportation Planning Chief for Caltrans District 5.
While recognizing the economic benefits, Caltrans is concerned the restaurant would adversely affect the State Highway System, Olejnik said in a letter to the council.
If the project were to move forward, Olejnik suggested extending the Highway 101 offramp by 200 feet to accommodate more vehicles in the queue, installing a queueing detection system in the restaurant to alert employees to traffic backups, triggering traffic signals to clear the traffic, and if needed closing the left-turn lane from SR-246 onto McMurray.
Sr. Deputy Jeff Farmer from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office also weighed in on the potential traffic hazard stating it’s likely the majority of customers to In-N-Out will be from highway motorists and not nearby residents with peak hours during lunch time and the early evening.
In-N-Out representative Jim Lockington expressed frustration about the lengthy approval process and stressed the conditions imposed were not legally supported calling it a “gross overreach.”
At the end of the discussion the Buellton City councilmembers voted 3-1 in support of the appeal to reject the proposal.
This was a non-starter. Traffic is already terrible and several projects in the hopper. Too bad common sense doesn’t prevail.
Given that the project was a halted it appears common sense did prevail, right?
Yes but not before a lot of wasted efforts!
They opened an In-N-Out burger in my cousin’s town after they fought the existing restaurant owners who were afraid of competition.
And yet we’re all still dealing with traffic on State due to Chic-fil-a
In N Out is not shy about permanently pulling out of proposed locations. They have done it in numerous cities.