Citizens and council move swiftly to stop Subway Sandwiches and
other formula food stops from invading historic town
With an urgency some towns reserve to address disasters, the San
Juan Bautista City Council voted unanimously this week to outlaws
chain stores and businesses.
Citizens and council move swiftly to stop Subway Sandwiches and other formula food stops from invading historic town
With an urgency some towns reserve to address disasters, the San Juan Bautista City Council voted unanimously this week to outlaws chain stores and businesses.
The ordinance was placed on a special meeting agenda last week after franchisees of a Subway sandwich store applied for a permit, when city officials and most citizens thought erroneously that local ordinances banned them in the historic town.
The owners of the sandwich chain have already paid application fees to the city for their would-be new business, and the former tenants of the Windmill Plaza space where it would be located – Paul Davis Restoration – have said they were asked to leave to make way for the shop.
On Monday, however, residents and business owners alike vented their disdain for chain outlets in a town that prides itself on its 19th-century charm.
The council’s vote means the end for Subway, whose owners had filed an application fee with the city but had not yet been approved by the planning commission. The urgency ordinance will stay in place for 45 days – until the council passes a permanent one.
“Letting Subway in would set a precedent,” said activist Rebecca McGovern, who fights developments that she feels would alter San Juan’s old-time charm. “It would mean that any and all chain stores that want to could come in. This would deteriorate the character of San Juan irrevocably…. We all thought we had it in an ordinance.”
McGovern and City Manager Larry Cain spent hours earlier this month at City Hall trying to find the phantom ordinance banning businesses such as 7-11s, McDonalds and Burger King. To many residents’ surprise and disappointment, there was none.
But the biggest question that arose Monday night was where to draw the line on national chain businesses. Former San Juan Councilman Robert Quaid took the podium to say that the village already has a Union 76 gas station near Highway 156 and a Pizza Factory franchise.
“I don’t think it has chased tourists away,” said Quaid. “There are some businesses I would welcome to town as a resident. Every time I want to go to a hardware store, I have to go to Gilroy or Hollister. If an Ace Hardware store came into town, would we say that’s bad for residents?
The audience listened politely to Quaid until he insulted the owners of the Pizza Factory.
“I don’t like eating Pizza Factory pizza. I go over to Hollister and get Round Table, myself,” he said.
Neither the owners of the Pizza Factory, the future Subway Sandwiches, or the co-owners of Windmill Plaza attended the meeting.
Speakers at the meeting prided themselves on their disdain for the types of stores that have homogenized other American cities.
“The other day some people drove down my street and stopped to ask me directions to a McDonald’s or a Burger King or a Wendy’s,” said resident Michael Ostrowski. “And I took a real lot of pleasure and pride in telling them, ‘Go to Salinas, go to Hollister, go to Gilroy.’
The harshest critic of chain businesses was town activist James “Colonel” Dulin. Wearing a business suit and tie, Dulin not only disparaged the idea of letting franchises in, but took the opportunity to lob a few political volleys at what he perceives as pro-business “power elite” in town ousted in the November election.
“I do not understand, after all these years, why this issue on the chain franchises finally is brought up,” said Dulin. “Why has this not been addressed before? It kind of tells me what type of leadership we have had in the past 12 years.”
In the end, the council members didn’t debate over what to do. They were more concerned about making sure that the owners of Subway Sandwiches, Matt and Yvette Papenhausen, who also own the Subway Sandwiches on McCray Street in Hollister, get their money back for their business application fees. They could not be reached for comment by press time.
City Attorney Patrick Whitnell said that the applicants could still go through the application process if they wanted to since a formal ordinance has not been made and placed on the city books yet. Officials say there has no indication from the Papenhausens that they want to withdraw their bid, so now would not be the time to reimburse them, said Whitnell. The council can consider giving the couple’s money back after the council passes the ordinance, which is expected to happen at another council meeting within the next 45 days, when the urgency anti-franchise ordinance expires.
New council member Art Medina made the motion to approve the urgency ordinance to deny “big box and formula restaurants” from applying for business permits within the city of San Juan Bautista, and it was seconded by Councilman Dan Reed. The vote was unanimous.
