Moratorium Extended on Drive-Through Restaurants

It will be at least another year before any new drive-through fast-food restaurants and takeout eateries open in South Pasadena.

The City Council late Wednesday extended a moratorium for 12 months on everything from mom-and-pop hamburger joints to franchise restaurants.

Citing fears that fast-food outlets erode the character of the small town and escalate traffic problems along its main corridors, the council unanimously renewed the nearly year-old moratorium. The vote means a McDonald’s built more than decade ago remains the sole drive-through restaurant in town.

Officials said the city of 24,000 people will soon consider joining Sierra Madre and West Hollywood in outlawing any new drive-through restaurants.

Mayor Dorothy Cohen said she likes Sierra Madre’s recent ban.

“I’m against fast-food drive-through establishments, period,” Cohen said.

She said such a ban strikes a chord in the community, where preservation and development go hand in hand.

Cohen said she expects her position to be supported by the council. The present moratorium on new fast-food restaurants came on the heels of a decision by the majority of the five-member council to put a lid on plans for a drive-through Jack in the Box.

In supporting that vote last year, Councilman Dick Richards said that adding fast-food restaurants along Fair Oaks Avenue could conflict with the city’s plans to use that road as a street-based alternative to the proposed Long Beach Freeway extension. For more than 30 years, residents have fought the highway that would cut through the city.

City officials said they expect a decision on whether to allow any new drive-through or takeout restaurants to be reached at a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission later this month.

The South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce is already voicing concerns about banning new takeout restaurants, saying such a move could even block a bakery.

But city officials say that at the very least a new general plan that is close to completion is expected to severely limit the number and location of such establishments. Two dozen takeout restaurants--including businesses that have tables as well as takeout service--already dot Fair Oaks Avenue in strip malls.

However, the future of the fast-food industry in South Pasadena could be decided at the City Council elections in March, where pro-preservation and pro-development candidates are expected to run for office. One of two seats up for election is that of Richards, who was among the council majority voting to kill the plan for the drive-through Jack in the Box.