When is a gateway not a gateway? When In-N-Out Burger wants to
come to town? The burger joint with its own fan club has been
dangling jobs and sales tax and community donations before the City
Council for several months now, and lately it
’s even said it will bring Applebee’s Restaurant along, too.
When is a gateway not a gateway? When In-N-Out Burger wants to come to town? The burger joint with its own fan club has been dangling jobs and sales tax and community donations before the City Council for several months now, and lately it’s even said it will bring Applebee’s Restaurant along, too.
Sounds like a win-win deal for the city, residents and hamburgers. But it is not that simple.
In-N-Out insists on locating right at the southbound offramp from Hwy 101 to Cochrane Road. They would be the first thing drivers see as they exit the freeway – complete with drive-through aisles, rows of parked cars and scant landscaping.
This sort of thing was specifically prohibited when the city’s general plan was updated by a committee of residents and city staff, trying to maintain Morgan Hill’s distinct small town image. This gateway policy was years in the making and it makes sense. It isn’t necessary for Morgan Hill to imitate every other place in the country in tackiness.
City staff, in charge of investigating the details of development deals and presenting the City Council with a report and a recommendations for action, has been highly dubious, reluctant and even averse to the project because the proposal flies in the face of specific general plan rules. If the Planning Department ignores the general plan, what good is it to have a plan at all?
The site was intended to house two sit-down restaurants of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 square-feet in size. The property developers, Tharaldson, agreed to that design.
Instead of trying to accommodate the general plan, the staff and the council, In-N-Out is relying on public pressure, showing up at council meetings with a fistful of petitions, promises to hire youth at higher than the minimum wage and the virtues of freshly cooked hamburgers.
In-N-Out insists on having what Bischoff refers to as “a sea of cars” between the eatery and the street, though In-N-Out objected to that reference. It insists on landscaping waivers and, oddest of all, In-N-Out switched sites, so that the drive through place is now closest to the freeway with Applebee’s inland. When the project was originally presented to the city in 2002, the sit-down restaurant was next to the offramp and the drive-through somewhat hidden.
Traffic will be a mess, despite what In-N-Out says – just drive by the one at the Gilroy outlets. Or try to drive by.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy and Councilman Greg Sellers are in favor of the project, being willing to bypass the aesthetic issues for the job and a claim of $50,000 a year in sales taxes. Council members Tate, Carr and Chang are, so far, not willing to approve the project. Chang said at Wednesday’s meeting that she had never seen staff so “uncomfortable” with a project in her seven years at City Hall.
And Tate is holding fast to the letter and spirit of the general plan recommendation.
If the council bends these sensible rules for In-N-Out, what’s next? What will this precedent mean when somebody wants to build a high sales tax providing, thoroughly unattractive business at a gateway location? Council has already denied a project for a medical clinic at the Tennant Avenue/Hwy 101 gateway location because it doesn’t meet the general plan. And, heaven knows, medical clinics are not thick on Morgan Hill’s ground.
In-N-Out Burger is popular because it has a reputation for “different” fast food. We are not claiming they won’t have a following or won’t attract business.
We are only saying that, because they have such a following, business will follow them – at another Morgan Hill location.
