A Chick-Fil-A location on State Street in Santa Barbara could be declared a public nuisance by the City Council. And no, not because of woke reasons you're assuming when we just mention the word California. It's because the line from the drive-thru is obstructing traffic on a daily basis. Because everybody loves Chick-Fil-A, maybe to a fault.
A report from the City of Santa Barbara concludes that,
Based on observations, the queue blocks the number two traffic lane of State Street an average of 70 minutes per day on weekdays, and 92 minutes per day on Saturdays.
But you know that Chick-Fil-A is probably getting upwards of 200 people their lunch during that hour of traffic delays, soooo #worthit.
On the plus side, the traffic is free and clear on Sundays! So y'all can just stop your complaining and get yourself to church on time.
The Chick-fil-A owner-operator, Travis Collins, responded in the most Chick-Fil-A way possible saying,
"On behalf of myself, Chick-fil-A and the many team members, we sincerely regret that this traffic situation has come to this point and heartily wish to work in good faith with the City to resolve this matter once and for all."
Like all Chick-Fil-A locations, they have taken a variety of measures to get everyone and their mother their lunch in a timely manner, including reconfiguring their drive-thru lines, and having those poor teenagers stand outside for hours on end taking your order on those little tablet things.
The problem is actually the city's fault though, as the LA Times explains,
Drive-through businesses are rare in Santa Barbara because the city banned the construction of new drive-through businesses more than 40 years ago. Chick-fil-A is grandfathered into its site, which was previously a Burger King drive-through that had nowhere near the same volume of traffic.
So basically everyone in 2022 is going to the same number of drive-thrus that were available in the 1980s. Hint: A LOT more people are going to drive-thrus today than were 40 years ago. And Chick-Fil-A is getting a heckuva lot more business than any Burger King ever has.
If the restaurant is not able to find and present new solutions to the traffic issues, they could lose their nonconforming use status for using their drive-thru facilities. But never fear, they're already in the process of finding a new location just out of the city limits where city ordinances from 1982 are irrelevant. As they probably should be.
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