Restaurant Approved, but Without Neon

A new restaurant was welcomed to the city this week--but without the neon signs sought by the owners.

City Council members approved an application to build the Outback Steakhouse, a Kentucky-based chain of eateries, at 25322 Cabot Road. The council held firm on a city law banning neon business signs.

“This council has been very tough” with businesses that asked for neon signs in the past, Councilwoman Melody Carruth said. Approval “would be in direct conflict with the position we’ve taken on other land-use” applications.

Company representatives had pushed for neon signs, which would make the proposed 6,115-square-foot restaurant more visible from Interstate 5.

“People have to get off the freeway and look” for the restaurant, said Bill Fancher of Fancher Development in Tustin, an investor in the restaurant franchise. “Neon is very, very important to us.”

The council agreed to reduce the restaurant’s street improvement costs from $50,000 to $15,000.

Company spokesman Steve Fricker, another restaurant investor, told the council that the project was on a tight budget.

Paying the full cost of street improvements “would be impossible,” Fricker said. “That would kill the deal for us.”

After the price tag for street improvements was reduced by the council, company officials said they would move forward with the restaurant, which they hope to open by late November.