The Chick-fil-A planned for Calle Real was approved on May 27 by the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission with a unanimous vote of 5-0 for the start of construction. The restaurant is being put in on Calle Real, at the former location of an IHOP that closed in the summer of 2022. Off the same exit at Turnpike are an In-N-Out Burger and a Starbucks, both featuring a drive-through.
The project was originally heard on March 25 but was pushed back due to the commissioners not seeing enough evidence on the air quality claim. They raised concerns about traffic, as well as how air pollution will be impacted. The staff report stated that the drive-through will have no greater air-quality impact than a regular restaurant.
“Idling is better than park and restart,” said Beth Collins, a land-use attorney from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, during last Wednesday’s hearing. “Also, less time on site results in fewer air quality emissions from idling or park and restart.” Collins said that park-and-restart emissions are higher than stabilized running emissions, meaning that when an individual turns off their car, it begins to create emissions due to evaporating fuel from the hot engine…