In 1998, Carlsbad passed a ban on drive-thru restaurants. Existing ones could remain, but new ones were not allowed.
Recently, the City Council voted 3-2 for a policy to allow more drive-thrus.
“I'm excited,” Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Bret Schanzenbach said.
He was among those in the business community advocating to lift the “outdated” ban.
“We're excited as a chamber. We're excited that a path now exists," Schanzenbach said. "I hope that the path can become less onerous on the businesses over time.”
The ban was originally implemented when Legoland first came to town. The city was concerned that the area near the park would mirror the commercial sprawl seen around Disneyland. The area is now fully built out, making that issue moot.
Councilmember Teresa Acosta was one of two who voted against the new policy. At the April 29 meeting, she expressed concerns about the effects drive-thrus would have on the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I don’t want our city to be a stop off the (Interstate) 5 for people to grab food from a fast-food location and move along," Acosta said. "We already have 12 of those.”
The ban, however, creates an awkward situation where newer restaurants are next to older ones with drive-thrus, such as one spot on Avenida Encintas.
There, a busy In-N-Out drive-thru stands next to a Chick-fil-A restaurant that opened after the ban. The Chick-fil-A has infrastructure in place in case the city lifts the ban.
But new policy doesn’t lift the ban altogether. Instead, it lets the city issue conditional-use permits and zoning amendments for individual locations.
Schanzenbach calls that winning the battle but not the war, because there were no guarantees those permits would be approved.
“This particular avenue that they've chosen is definitely going to only have limited people even start it," he said. "Because of the time involved, the money involved and how the onus is all on the business itself.”
He says some developers who can open new drive-thrus are hesitating, such as TRC Retail, which owns La Costa Town Square.
“We are evaluating the City Council’s decision to assess whether or not it makes sense to bring forward any plan for La Costa Town Square,” TRC Retail consulting director Byron de Arakal said in a statement to KPBS.
According to the city's economic impact analysis, drive-thrus are a revenue generator for Carlsbad. Restaurants without drive-thrus generated an average of $22,000 a year in sales taxes, compared to $30,000 for those with drive-thrus.
The new policy does not apply to Carlsbad’s downtown Village and Barrio areas, which are under a separate master plan.
