New restaurants under construction near Cochrane Plaza
Burger and breakfast lovers will soon have two new options for dining out in Morgan Hill if In-N-Out Burger and Denny’s meet their Thanksgiving opening dates.
In-N-Out Burger, which owns the two-acre site near Cochrane Plaza, hopes weather will allow the construction of the two restaurants to proceed as planned, according to Raymond Villanueva, director of development for In-N-Out.
In-N-Out, which serves made-to-order hamburger under the motto of “serving quality food fast,” is headquartered in Southern California and has about 24 restaurants in the South Bay area, including one in Gilroy. The fast food place is the reason Denny’s restaurant will also be coming to Morgan Hill, according to Villanueva.
“The city required a sit-down restaurant as a condition to agreeing for us to come to Morgan Hill,” explained Villanueva. He said the company had approached several other restaurants, including Chili’s and Applebee’s, but the city’s steep permit fees made it difficult for them to entice other restaurants to come into the community. Villanueva said permit fees are about a quarter of a million dollars.
“The city’s fees are so expensive. I believe they are the most expensive in the area,” said Villanueva.
Garrett Toy, director of Business Assistance and Housing Services, acknowledged Morgan Hill’s fees are high, especially for restaurants, and he attributed that to impact fees which are not charged by more established communities like San Jose.
“For communities like Morgan Hill, which are not built-out, we charge new businesses an impact fee to pay for the regional impact the business will have on the community, like water, sewage use, traffic,” Toy said. “This, plus the added cost of assessment fees a business has to pay for infrastructure, contributes to the high fees. A restaurant has the most impact on traffic, for instance, so unfortunately, their fees are higher than an office.”
Toy said with plans for the Cochrane Road Shopping Center, which will be developed at the northeast corner of Cochrane Road and US Highway 101, developers have asked the city to come up with a way to address the high impact fees.
“We hope to address this in the future,” said Toy.
Nevertheless, despite the high fees, In-N-Out believes it has a future in Morgan Hill.
“Morgan Hill is a strategic location for us,” said Villanueva. “The community is right off the freeway, which we usually like to have our sites on.”
He said while construction on the 3,200 sq. ft. In-N-Out building is ahead by two to three weeks, the goal is to have both restaurants open at about the same time. The Denny’s building will be 5,000 sq. ft. The two eateries will be adjacent to each other on the 800 block of Cochrane Road.
Villanueva said the company is looking forward to opening its doors to Morgan Hill residents.
“We think we will be successful there,” he said.
Rose Meily covers City Hall for the Morgan Hill Times. Reach her at 779-4106 or by e-mail at rm****@mo*************.com.
