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<\/p>\nMany cities \u2014 not to mention their hungry residents \u2014 are eager for burger icon In-N-Out to open an outpost.<\/p>\n
The chain has been expanding rapidly, finding there are plenty of customers for each new location.<\/p>\n
But there is one Southern California city that is pushing back.<\/p>\n
When In-N-Out recently approached Culver City with interest in opening one of its drive-through restaurants in the Westside community, it sparked a backlash. <\/p>\n
Some residents expressed concerns about pollution, the traffic congestion, the dangers of errant drivers around kids and the lingering aroma of frying food. The City Council listened, imposing a moratorium on new drive-throughs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A drive-thru worker works the long lines at the In-N-Out Burger in the 9000 block of Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The battle in Culver City has gained national attention because it highlights larger concerns about the proliferation of drive-through restaurants. The car-friendly layout has been booming for decades, with many retail businesses seeing the car lanes as essential to making the restaurants work financially.<\/p>\n
The pandemic boosted the concept even more, offering a low-risk, low-contact way to get food.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s first drive-through was an In-N-Out in Baldwin Park in 1948,<\/a> and by the 1960s, the new approach to dining had begun to reshape the American landscape.<\/p>\n But Culver City is part of a small but notable rebellion.<\/p>\n At a recent City Council meeting, residents took the mic one by one to speak passionately on an issue that has grown dear to them in recent months: drive-throughs and how much they hate them. <\/p>\n It began in January when news traveled of the In-N-Out with a mega drive-through at the corner of Sepulveda and Sawtelle boulevards. The intersection is already considered one of the worst, most traffic-clogged intersections in the small city. And with an elementary school a stone\u2019s throw away on Overland Avenue, parents worried that the already accident-prone intersection would become more unsafe and polluted.<\/p>\n \u201cDrive-throughs are pollution monsters,\u201d resident Leah Pressman told the council at the meeting. \u201cThey are obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n Another resident, Theresa Attias, said hungry drivers pose a danger to parents, children and other passersby. And, she noted, \u201chow can the children study when the smell of French fries and onion rings is tickling their noses?\u201d<\/p>\n The burst of organizing and outrage among neighbors \u2014 including a petition opposing the In-N-Out development that garnered more than 900 signatures \u2014 spurred the city council earlier this year to impose an emergency 45-day moratorium on any new drive-through. <\/p>\n At a meeting earlier this month, the council voted 4-0 to extend the ban for another 10 months, to give more time to city staff to study the impacts and recommend language for an ordinance potentially banning new drive-throughs permanently.<\/p>\n Bubba Fish, the Culver City council member and vice mayor who worked closely with local residents to push for the moratorium, said the enthusiastic engagement of \u201cpeople from different walks of life, different ideologies who you might not typically see at City Hall\u201d was a welcome surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more I listened to these folks, it became very clear that no one in Culver City wanted a drive-through in their neighborhood,\u201d Fish said. \u201cDrive-throughs are great if you\u2019re a multi-national fast food chain, but they aren\u2019t great if you have to live in their vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n Vanessa Martin, who has helped lead the burst of organizing, said boosting walkability when deciding what development will occupy the currently empty lot could encourage people to spend more time in the neighborhood and patronize mom-and-pop shops. It would make the area more accessible for people such as her brother, who has a developmental disability and cannot drive, she said. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen people literally drive in and out, they don\u2019t stop to shop,\u201d Martin said. \u201cWe are interested in being much more proactive about what businesses and development to bring that is smart and creative, and addresses the needs of people more vulnerable, like children and older adults.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of a drive-through ban is not new, with several California cities implementing such bans in the 1980s and 1990s, and a smattering of cities examining the issue in recent years.<\/p>\n But the fact that there isn\u2019t more information readily available on how drive-throughs impact communities \u2014 particularly in car-centric California where green modes of transportation, denser development and prioritizing bike lanes and foot traffic are increasingly in vogue \u2014 means both sides of the drive-through debate see an opportunity to make their case to the public. <\/p>\n Marcel Moran, an assistant professor studying urban transportation at San Jos\u00e9 State\u2019s School of Planning, Policy and Environmental Studies, says drive-throughs have been \u201cunderstudied relative to the degree of which it\u2019s a feature of the American landscape.\u201d <\/p>\n In a study he co-wrote that\u2019s undergoing peer review, researchers counted at least 133,000 drive-throughs across the U.S., using satellite imagery, company records and online reviews, and found that drive-throughs are are not clustered just at highway interchanges and rural stretches, as many perceive them to be, but that 83% are in urban and suburban neighborhoods.<\/p>\n According to Moran, drive-throughs can be detrimental to the fabric of a community. There\u2019s pollution from the vehicles and they can encourage social isolation, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re sitting in your car, you\u2019re not walking and standing in line. In a dining room you might make conversation with the family at the next table,\u201d Moran said. \u201cAll these other things that are part of the social fabric of indoor dining, all of that is removed in a drive-through.\u201d<\/p>\n Long queues of idling cars certainly have negative effects on the surrounding environment, releasing nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, even with technological advancements in newer cars that increase energy efficiency, said Daniel Mendoza, an assistant professor at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, who studied the impact of drive-through COVID-19 testing sites on urban air quality. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery time a car moves one spot forward, that produces a large amount of emissions, creating this pollution hotspot by drive-through facilities,\u201d Mendoza said. <\/p>\n How drive-throughs are designed matters, and limiting worker exposure and how much of the line of cars spills over into nearby streets is crucial, he said. A study that examined the emission rates at three fast food restaurants in Houston with different drive-through configurations found that emissions were relatively lower at drive-through facilities with fewer stops and lanes.<\/p>\n When atmospheric weather conditions in May drove dangerous pollution levels in Texas, environmental officials urged residents<\/a> to limit driving and in particular to avoid drive-through lines. They warned the elevated ozone levels, exacerbated by idling cars, could have immediate health effects for older adults, children and those with heart or lung conditions, such as asthma.<\/p>\n Drive-throughs took hold in the 1960s, but after just a decade or two, they began to be cast as pariahs of a sort<\/a> and drew neighbor complaints around traffic, noise and aesthetics, causing several California cities including Santa Barbara, Sierra Madre, San Luis Obispo and Carlsbad to impose sweeping bans, and others such as South Pasadena, Burbank and Newport Beach to pass some restrictions or temporary bans. <\/p>\n In the late oughts, a McDonald\u2019s franchise operator in the San Luis Obispo area lobbied the city to lift its ban but was unsuccessful, as the ordinance was upheld in a 3-2 vote. <\/p>\n Long Beach \u2014 after an influx of new drive-throughs \u2014 moved in 2019 to develop restrictions in certain corridors and require traffic studies and considerate design to allow them to be zoned in other areas.<\/p>\n But not all bans are permanent. After issuing a citywide ban in the late 1990s, the city of Carlsbad softened its policies last year, allowing new drive-throughs on a case-by-case basis after an economic study found restaurants produced $30,000 a year on average in sales tax revenue with a drive-through and $22,000 without. <\/p>\n Bret Schanzenbach, president and chief executive of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, said surrounding areas had taken advantage of the city\u2019s ban on drive-throughs, effectively stealing away business by stationing Starbucks and Dutch Bros businesses just outside the city\u2019s limits to attract coffee drinkers heading in for work each morning. <\/p>\n \u201cThey are getting as close to the border as they can to capture that convenience,\u201d Schanzenbach said.<\/p>\n Many residents weren\u2019t even aware, he said, that the city had what he described as an outdated ban, until a Chick-Fil-A opened and residents were confused that it didn\u2019t have a drive-through.<\/p>\n Before doing anything permanent, officials in Culver City should \u201cthoroughly understand the consequences\u201d of their decision, said Jot Condie, president of the California Restaurant Assn.<\/p>\n \u201cDrive-throughs ensure accessibility and the public\u2019s health by allowing families with young children, older adults, and those with disabilities, as well as those with autoimmune diseases to enjoy the same experience as others. It\u2019s vital the city considers these community members before making a decision,\u201d Condie said.<\/p>\n Under Culver City\u2019s temporary ban, eight existing drive-throughs in the city would not be affected. The proposed In-N-Out, if allowed, would be the first new drive-through in Culver City since 1997, according to a city staff report. <\/a><\/p>\n