SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to approve an ordinance that bans additional fast-food restaurants in the historic downtown area. There are already six fast-food facilities clustered off Del Obispo Street and Ortega Highway. The regulations will allow new fast-food restaurants only in other parts of the city and only under conditional use permits that will prevent strip malls from cropping up.

“We don’t need any more fast food in town,” said Councilman David M. Swerdlin, who voted against the ordinance because he wanted a ban on all new fast-food restaurants.

Councilman Wyatt Hart thought the partial ban was a good idea. He said that it was a burden for workers around the city to have to drive to the center of town for fast food and that it brought too much traffic to the already congested area.