Chicken chain restaurant to go in next to Raising Cane’s in Ceres. Why did planners OK it?
For those who like fried chicken: How many options are too many? How would you choose among three restaurants next to one another?
Questions like these were discussed during a Ceres Planning Commission meeting Monday evening when site plan approval for Pollo Campero, a Guatemalan chain chicken restaurant, was proposed at 1355 E. Hatch Road.
A Raising Canes exists on the site where the Pollo Campero would be constructed, and a Popeyes sits directly across the street. All three restaurants have a similar menu, serving fried chicken and a variety of sides.
“You get three chicken places there that I could stand in the middle of the street, throw rocks and hit them,” Ceres resident John Warren said. “What will happen is they’ll probably all go out of business and we’ll be looking at empty buildings.”
Ceres Chamber of Commerce Vice President Irene Ortiz was at the meeting on behalf of Mayor Javier Lopez and read a statement written by his office.
Lopez inquired about providing alternative locations for Pollo Campero, suggesting District 2, where there is “a clear lack of food options,” according to the statement. Pollo Campero declined to change its location.
“Should this decision be approved, it is highly likely that the matter will be appealed and brought back to the City Council,” the mayor’s statement read. “If that happens, there is a strong possibility that this establishment will not be allowed to open up at this location.”
Despite the concerns expressed during public comment, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the site plans.
Can the City of Ceres deny a business if it complies with codes?
The public didn’t raise the only concerns with the construction of Pollo Campero next to Raising Cane’s and across the street from Popeyes. The commissioners had some of their own.
The 2021 approval for the entire site at Hatch and Herndon roads included plans for the Raising Cane’s. The parcel that soon will be Pollo Campero and the parcel behind it were designated for fast-food restaurants as part of the approval.
“It’s just that tenants weren’t determined at the time,” senior planner Teddie Hernandez said.
Commissioner Cerina Otero said she researched Pollo Campero before the start of the meeting and it does not exist in the Central Valley. The closest locations are in the Bay Area.
“One of my concerns is that will this place make it in Ceres?” she said.
There is extensive market research that occurs before a business decides to locate in a certain market, Hernandez said. “I feel like if they’ve picked this location (and) they know there’s an adjacent chicken place, it’s clearly not deterring them” she said. “Sounds like they welcome the competition.”
That being said, can the city deny a businesses to construct at a certain location or in the city at all if it or residents do not think it’s ideal?
No, said Bob Kachel, the Planning Commission chairman. There must be grounds in the ordinance and in the city’s plans to do so.
The zone for the property says fast-food restaurants can be put in the parcel, per the approval of the site in 2021.
“Whether I think it’s a great idea or not, I don’t think I have the tool or the authority to say, ‘No we can’t approve this,’” Kachel said. “And I’m not sure the City Council does, either, with all due respect, until they have a general plan or a zoning governance which gives them that authority.”
Can it be later be included in the code to define a specific type of fast-food restaurant that can go into a parcel, Otero asked.
To put that specificity in the zoning ordinance would probably infringe on some rights, Hernandez said. It would have to be a policy decision coming from the City Council to say, “We’re not going to allow certain type of food products,” and that would be “pretty sticky.”
The things that are focused on in the zoning ordinance include land use, public safety, site circulation, environmental impacts and noise, not which brand of restaurant or how many of one type.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 1:50 PM.
.jpg)