A controversial Chick-fil-A restaurant won’t significantly snarl traffic at four key intersections, harm the environment or be incompatible with surrounding neighborhoods, according to a new Santa Barbara County analysis of the proposal.
The determination comes amid an outpouring of support for the project — and strong opposition.
The county Planning Commission on Wednesday will consider whether to approve the 2,647-square-foot-structure and drive-thru proposed for the site of a shuttered IHOP restaurant, next to Starbucks, at 4765 Calle Real and the Highway 101 offramp at South Turnpike Road.
“The project does not require further environmental review,” according to the 23-page report from county planners, who determined the location, physical characteristics, shape and size of the proposal satisfy existing land use laws.
Streets and highways can handle the expected traffic, planners said, adding the proposed 66-seat restaurant is similar in scale to surrounding development and would not exceed county thresholds for noise or air pollution.
But some nearby residents disagree, stressing in letters to the county that the area is already too congested.
“We already contend with three existing drive-thru businesses on the corner of Calle Real and Turnpike. Starbucks, In-N-Out Burger and the drive thru car wash at Shell gas station,” Thomas Elliott, president of the homeowners’ association at Forte Ranch, recently wrote.
“All these businesses, at times, cause traffic problems,” Elliott said. “I have seen large trash trucks unable to make the right hand turn on to Calle Real because of vehicles waiting to enter Starbucks back up to the corner.”
Mary O’Gorman, who five years ago unsuccessfully appealed the expansion of the Starbucks drive-thru located next to the proposed Chick-fil-A, said county planners got their air quality analysis wrong.
“Perhaps the most offensive argument is the one repeatedly mentioned… that emissions would be reduced because people who now drive to Santa Barbara to the Chick-fil-A will now simply stay near home,” O’Gorman wrote. “There is no community plan policy that advocates for a particular fast food business to be permitted to alleviate the traffic problems that same business causes in a neighboring jurisdiction.”
A land use planner working with Chick-fil-A told the News-Press on Monday that the fast food chain anticipated traffic concerns and cooperated with officials to find the optimal layout for vehicle circulation. The restaurant would have 52 parking spots, and dual drive-thru lanes would hold up to 32 vehicles from the entry point to the pick-up window.
“We designed this site to be the best case scenario,” said Sarah Bronstad of the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP.
Refinements included reducing the number of driveways from two to one. In addition, a stretch of Calle Real will be re-striped, Bronstad said.
Among backers of the proposed restaurant are 424 current Chick-fil-A customers who in recent weeks voluntarily filled out cards at the restaurant’s upper State Street location in support. Nearly 95 percent live on the South Coast, with 78 percent residing in Goleta or Isla Vista and 16 percent “in the greater Santa Barbara area,” according to Carlos Arias, western region development director for the company.
Dr. Paul Aijian, who lives “just up the road” from the project site, said he and his family are big Chick-fil-A fans — and that the new restaurant would help create jobs and economically enrich unincorporated Goleta.
The restaurant would employ as many as 75 people, with 7 to 16 on shift at any one time, according to the county.
“It would provide a convenient, high-demand dining option for our community,” Aijian wrote to the county. “Chick-fil-A’s renowned operational excellence and focus on efficiency would help minimize any disruptions, while their proven track record suggests they can effectively address parking, access and traffic flow through thoughtful site design.”
In 2023, a Chick-fil-A on upper State Street reopened with a wider driveway, an additional drive-thru lane and reconfigured a parking lot following months of controversy over operations at that location.
The city of Santa Barbara had threatened to shut down the drive-thru there after cars and trucks kept backing up into the street.
Nationally, the restaurant chain came under scrutiny in 2012 following its then-CEO’s opposition to same-sex marriage as well as corporate donations to causes considered anti-LGBTQ+. The company later announced it would change its charitable giving strategies.
Reviewing the Goleta proposal, county planners said their traffic study focused on potential impacts to intersections at Turnpike and Calle Real, Turnpike and Highway 101 northbound, Turnpike at Highway 101 southbound, and the restaurant’s Dexter Drive driveway. Planners also studied three road segments: Turnpike north of Calle Real, Turnpike south of Calle Real, and Calle Real east of Turnpike.
In 2022, members of the county Board of Architectural Review took issue with the proposed architecture — one described it as too “corporate” — and said the design catered to automobiles more than pedestrians and bicycles. In addition, the architectural review board asked for more landscape planters and for more alignment with Santa Barbara area aesthetics.
On Monday, Bronstad said Chick-Fil-A had added landscaping to the proposal. And while the closed IHOP would be torn down to make way for the new restaurant, Chick-fil-A has opted to keep four large and healthy non-native trees that help to screen the property from Highway 101.
All told, the project will include 56 native trees and appear heavily landscaped for a fast food site, Bronstad said.
The Planning Commission will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the county Engineering Building, Room 17, in Santa Barbara.
