No Taking This Order : Sierra Madre Bans Drive-Through Restaurants as a Threat to Its Homey, Pedestrian-Friendly Feeling

Nestled below Mt. Wilson sits Sierra Madre, a bastion of small-town Americana locked in a self-imposed time warp.

This 10,767-strong community with a single police detective and volunteer firefighters is without a modern supermarket, a multiplex theater or a drive-through burger joint.

And the City Council is planning to keep it that way.

To the apparent delight of its citizens, Sierra Madre on Tuesday night became one of the few cities in the nation to ban drive-through restaurants. With at least one other municipality saying Wednesday that it may want to follow suit, Sierra Madre positioned itself at the leading edge of what some urban planning experts say is a small but growing backlash against what critics call the McDonaldsization of America.

“I think it would be absolutely horrible to have drive-throughs,” said Susan Merletti, a 38-year-old jeweler who reclined on a bench Wednesday in Sierra Madre’s pedestrian-friendly downtown. “The big corporations are predatory. . . . We eat in the local restaurants because they’re run by our neighbors.”

William Fulton, publisher of the California Planning and Development report, said some cities, “especially those communities that perceive themselves as having something of an alternative,” are eschewing chain stores and strip malls for pedestrian-oriented shopping districts.

Sierra Madre certainly believes it has an alternative. Its two-block downtown is the sort of strip where a restaurant can be named “The Only Place in Town” and somewhat deserve that name. Despite a Domino’s Pizza and a Starbucks--boycotted by some locals residents--much of the city is architecturally the same as when it was founded around the turn of the century.

The idea of banning drive-throughs in Sierra Madre simmered for years before being brought to a boil last month when I N’ Joy Bagels proposed building a drive-through in the middle of town.

Soon drive-throughs became the hot-button issue, eclipsing other election year events such as the presidential race or the proposed ban on affirmative action. Activists led a petition drive garnering 599 signatures and threatened lawsuits and ballot initiatives.

The issue was decided by a 3-2 vote at a contentious City Council meeting Tuesday, which effectively killed the bagel shop’s application. The drive-through ordinance will have to be finalized at a later meeting.

Executives at the Manhattan Bagel Co., which owns I N’ Joy, had not heard of the ban until contacted by a reporter.

“They don’t have any McDonald’s or any Jack in the Box in the town?” production manager Derek Martin asked incredulously. He took the council’s decision in stride: “They’re elected leaders. They must know what their community wants.”

What citizens wanted was obvious Tuesday night.

“This little community of ours by hook or by crook has become unique,” resident Joe Scalvo told the council. “We’ve escaped modernization. We live here to avoid. This issue is more important than any single issue.”

Third-grade teacher Ashe Macy said: “We don’t want to be living in Covina. We don’t want endless asphalt.”

Citizens said they opposed any sort of drive-through, from mom- and-pop hamburger joints to those operated by what they called the ultimate corporate boogeyman, Ronald McDonald. Council members opposing the ban said they feared over-regulating.

“It is not my job, nor any elective official’s, to be a taker of polls,” dissenting Councilman James Hester said. “We won’t ban gun sales, yet we’re willing to ban the passing of a hamburger into a car.”

Other cities also have made that decision. West Hollywood banned new drive-throughs at its incorporation 12 years ago. Burbank and South Pasadena have experimented with moratoriums on new drive-throughs, and South Pasadena officials say they are considering making their moratorium permanent after Sierra Madre’s vote. Claremont, which had banned such establishments, has in the past several years eased restrictions on drive-throughs to allow some near the San Bernardino Freeway and is considering allowing a new McDonald’s.

Although these others had preexisting drive-throughs, Sierra Madre starts out with just one small drive-through bank branch.

And that’s fine by even the younger residents of Sierra Madre, who will defend their way of life by any means necessary.

“McDonald’s would be nice and all,” said Pete DiMartino, 20, a gardener who confesses to sometimes being bored in Sierra Madre. “But too many people from other towns would be coming up here, kicking back and doing graffiti.”

Anyway, said photographer Kelly Clampitt, 34, as she puffed on a cigarette in downtown Sierra Madre, “if I have an urge for McDonald’s, I can just drive to Foothill Boulevard.”