Drive-thru concerns

Dave Whyte, owner of Kona’s Sandwiches on Nord Avenue, is concerned about a Subway moving in two doors down, but not for the reason one might think. He’s not worried that the sandwich shop would present competition for his store; what has him rankled is the plan to add a drive-thru that he says would interfere with truck deliveries for all the businesses on the block.

Whyte is not alone. He and seven other businesses and a property owner on the block—from Star Liquors at the southeast corner of Nord and West Sacramento avenues to Taj Indian Cuisine to the north—filed an appeal with the city last week after the zoning administrator approved a use permit for a Subway drive-thru in the old Star Liquors building in the center of the complex. (Unlike purely administrative decisions, zoning administrator actions are public and appealable.)

“We’re not mad at the city,” Whyte stressed during an interview at Kona’s this week.

“They’ve been very easy to deal with,” added Pawan Pabbi, owner of Star Liquors. “The city of Chico has always listened to us.”

“They want to be inclusive, to be business-friendly,” Whyte said. “But a drive-thru [here] would have a negative impact on eight other businesses.”

The property is problematic for several reasons, Whyte and Pabbi assert. First, a description: The old Star Liquors is a standalone building between two buildings housing two businesses each. Its closest neighbors are Everyday Vietnamese to the south and Angels Nails & Spa to the north (Kona’s shares a building with Angels). Ravi Gundimeda, who owns the Subway restaurants in Chico, proposes to move the existing Subway in the Safeway shopping center across the street into this building. The drive-thru would be located along the north wall, which currently accommodates parking. Cars would circle through the lot between the sandwich shop and Angels Nails.

The closest drive-thru Subways are in Paradise, Yuba City and Linda. Based on a field survey of those restaurants, the Subway Development Office in Sacramento/Reno submitted traffic estimates to the city. At the Nord store, they expect five to 15 cars per hour, with each order taking three to four minutes. Parking would be relocated from alongside the store to along the street. The fence at the rear of the property, which gives access to Paradise Apartments, would be replaced with a solid wall, though the pedestrian opening would remain.

“The use permit was approved, with conditions,” explained Bruce Ambo, principal planner for the city. Those conditions include a requirement that a queue of more than four cars would result in staff routing vehicles to wait in parking spaces for their food to be hand delivered. Also, visual plans—including that of the wall—would go before the Architectural Review and Historic Preservation Board.

The appeal of the zoning administrator’s decision, however, kicks the use permit to the City Council for review, Ambo said. It is slated for the Aug. 7 meeting. “There are a number of issues of contention that they’ve raised. We’re in the process of reviewing those internally for a response.”

The neighbors’ biggest concerns involve traffic—in particular that of delivery trucks—and parking. First, the only entrance accessible to the many large trucks that deliver supplies and ingredients to the businesses on the strip is the stop-light at West Sacramento and Nord avenues, where China House and Everyday Vietnamese sit. From there, the trucks travel through the parking lot to their respective stops.

A drive-thru queue, plus the addition of parking spaces along Nord Avenue, could impede that access, the appeal says.

According to Shannon Costa, assistant planner for the city, Gundimeda has agreed to eliminate two or three of the six spaces originally planned for Nord Avenue to allow better truck access. He also has decided not to eliminate the street entrances in front of the property, as CalTrans is planning a roundabout at the intersection of West Sacramento and Nord avenues that could affect that section of sidewalk, she said.

Gundimeda could not be reached for comment and Crucita Mena, manager for the Chico stores, could only tell the CN&R that they are very excited about the plans.

“We welcome Subway as part of the Urban renewal that Nord Ave[nue] has seen over the past 24 months,” the appeal reads. “We feel a full complex of businesses is healthy for all. But, with the longstanding common parking, easements, and traffic flow from the one and only stop light, we also humbly feel that a drive thru in this complex would adversely affect every business in any and all of the above described issues in a very negative fashion. We feel codes are a guideline, and common sense and community should play just as important a role in this decision.”