BRENTWOOD — Popeyes isn’t going to open here, in part over concerns a boulevard is already over-saturated with fast food joints.
The Brentwood City Council on Tuesday voted 4-1 to deny a conditional use permit for the Louisiana-style restaurant to set up on Brentwood Boulevard.
The decision followed hours of discussion by councilmembers and residents who were concerned that the proposed 2,735-square-foot eatery with a 21-vehicle capacity drive-thru did not fit in with the city’s general plan for the boulevard and could impact traffic.
The council’s vote went against the city’s planning commission, who last month approved the project in a 3-2 vote. Members of the commission were also concerned that a longer drive-thru would create more traffic congestion.
According to city staff, about 11 fast food restaurants are on the same stretch of road, with Taco Bell and KFC near the proposed Popeyes.
Resident Melissa van Ruiten said the lack of access to healthy food and the myriad of fast-food restaurants in the area can cause health problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.
“The vast majority of restaurants that already exist or have been newly approved or constructed along this stretch have been fast food establishments,” Ruiten said. “People would like to see some other options, which is why I’d like to urge councilmembers to vote against approving yet another fast-food chain, which would continue to perpetuate the food access disparity in the area.”
Carolina Vilaesca said Brentwood has many options of restaurants serving chicken on their menu, and approving another restaurant serving fried chicken will only pull sales from other restaurants in the city.
“This isn’t what we need. We should take inventory of what we have in Brentwood…but this is too much, we need better quality restaurants,” she said.
Jason Reed from CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment company, said the project is an important opportunity for the owners to stimulate economic development within the shopping center.
“Leasing leads to more leasing activities. One of the first questions I ever get asked when promoting or marketing a shopping center is, who else do you have? Who else is coming? It lends credibility to a project,” Reed said. “I believe it will be a great catalyst for future leasing in the center.”
Bob Gutierrez, a former chairman of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said his team had gathered about 350 signatures from business owners and residents in the area to support the project.
Councilmember Jovita Mendoza pointed out that the “petition gathering” had raised concerns as residents and business owners.
“People were upset and felt intimidated about it. Some of the shop owners felt they were strong-armed, which is very concerning to me that someone would go and pester shop owners in Brentwood in that way and that they would make them feel like they would not maybe have their businesses if they didn’t sign it.
“That’s like something out of a movie I and I don’t want to see here in Brentwood,” said Mendoza. She also expressed concerns over the design, the operation hours, traffic impact, and removal of parking spaces, and that it did not support the vision of the Brentwood Boulevard Specific Plan, which seeks to transform the area from its historically auto-oriented corridor into a more traditional boulevard.
Vice Mayor Susannah Meyer said she was upset over the area’s healthy places index, adding that the Council is trying to make improvements that could also improve residents’ choices.
“We already know this is a challenging area when it comes to healthy food. I can’t support the idea of bringing a drive-through that’s going to encourage that extra dependence on fast food,” she said.
Councilmember Tony Oerlemans, who against denying the permit, said he’s not a “big proponent” of the government telling citizens what they can or cannot eat or have access to. He added that the only way the city can stop fast-food restaurants from coming into the city is when residents stop patronizing such outlets.
Councilmember Pa’tanisha Pierson hoped to see more diversified businesses in the area. Although she supported the building’s modern aesthetics, she was worried about the safety aspect of having a drive-thru in the area.
“If I were to vote yes to a Popeyes coming, it would be without a drive-thru, and it would be with a whole lot of greenery,” she said, adding that residents in the area need more sit-down restaurants for families to enjoy.
Mayor Joel Bryant expressed concern that the presence of the fast-food restaurant might increase rents for locally owned businesses in the complex.
“If putting a new restaurant would significantly increase the rents, that would cause the families that have those small businesses in there to struggle more than they do,” he said.
However, Oerlemans said his fellow councilmembers were speculating on what could happen if the project was approved. He then asked Mel Young, a representative of the owners of the Brentwood Boulevard shopping center, if rents would be increased. Young said that would not happen.
“It’s not the type of situation where I could just go in and say, well, Popeyes is coming, so everybody’s rent is going to go up,” Young said. “You can’t do that with people you’ve known and done business with for years.”
Sunny Ghai, a franchisee of multiple fast food restaurants, expressed frustration over the opposition to Popeyes’ drive-thru, pointing out that the overall operations would remain the same even without the drive-through.
The focus should not be on a drive-thru, he said, but what the council would do if another business was interested in the same space without a drive-thru.
“It would be very interesting to see the city’s thoughts when it goes in there,” he said.
