San Juan Bautista officials in August reinstated a long-held ban against franchise businesses, but an exemption in that 2007 version of the law allows the city to approve franchise businesses such as the proposed, debated gas station at Windmill Market, the city manager told the Free Lance.
San Juan Bautista officials are weighing the possibility of moving ahead on an Arco gas station project at The Alameda despite reinstating that ban against formula, or franchise, businesses.
A lawsuit filed in June spurred San Juan officials to reconsider an action taken in March – when they nullified the ban against “formula” businesses such as chain restaurants or other franchise retailers – to spur new business. A group of anonymous residents calling themselves the Alliance of Concerned Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, or ACCORD, filed the suit while represented by San Francisco-based law firm SSL.
That anonymous group represented the general view held by developer Frank Leal, who opposed the gas station project across the road from his own lodging business.
“Leal doesn’t want service station in front of him,” City Manager Roger Grimsley said. “He just doesn’t.”
Grimsley explained to the Free Lance, however, that the Arco gas station project is back on the table. Applicant Harvey Dadwal’s gas station proposal had been set to go before council members Tuesday for a public hearing on Leal’s filed appeal, along with Dadwal’s plans to pursue a mitigated negative declaration allowing him to move ahead. San Juan officials, though, ended up putting off the considerations until Nov. 18.
Grimsley in an interview with the Free Lance pointed to the 2007 version of the law adopted by the city that allows franchise businesses to go forward if the business’ interior and exterior complement or add to the city’s historic character. Additionally, signs have to conform to city design standards, and drive-throughs are prohibited, he said.
To meet those standards, the gas station design would blend with the city’s standards, while there would be no drive-through for a restaurant portion of the project as originally approved, Grimsley said.
The group filing the lawsuit argued San Juan had to follow CEQA because the ordinance falls under the definition of a project – because it provides a potential for direct, physical change in the environment – and that the state law exempts only a “narrow subset of projects from environmental review,” according to the lawsuit filed at the San Benito County Courthouse.
Within that document, the ACCORD group contends that making such changes as permitting drive-through restaurants “eviscerates the protections that preserved the city’s historic character.” The lawsuit argues that the city pursued the ordinance change in March as an “ex post facto attempt to justify” approving a chain gas station, drive-through restaurant and convenience store.
In December 2002, the city implemented the franchise ban against formula businesses and since then has renewed the ordinance three times, even as chains such as Subway have expressed interest in opening a shop in the Mission City. The updated law, approved in March, had given more leeway to the city in allowing franchise businesses on the outskirts of the city, especially along Highway 156 and other entrance points.
