2 businesses tried to bring drive-thrus back to SLO — 16 years after city ban

Cars take up a lot of spaces in our lives, financially, emotionally and physically.

Some financial calculators suggest that up to 20% of take-home pay should go to car expenses such as auto loans and insurance.

Automobile advertising taps into deep psychological motivations, with sleek sports cars promising sex appeal on wheels and luxury cars projecting status.

Meanwhile, about one-third of city land area in the United States is devoted to automobiles. There are an estimated eight parking spaces per car.

Car culture first blossomed in the 1950s with cruise nights and drive-in movie theaters.

Although cruises remain a proud tradition among classic car buffs — Atascadero will hold its popular Hot El Camino Cruise Nite on Aug. 18 — drive-thrus are most extinct with the exception of coffee kiosks and fast food restaurants.

The city of San Luis Obispo banned drive-thrus in 1982, but that didn’t stop two local businesses from deciding to flaunt the rules 16 years later.

One drive-thru was owned by future real estate developer and Atascadero Citizen of the Year Kelly Gearhart, who would later serve time in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering.

This story by Mary Hadley ran in the Aug., 18 1998, edition of the Telegram-Tribune.

Drive-throughs? In SLO?

Despite the town’s rules, two local businesses move into the fast lane

Two drive-through businesses opened in San Luis Obispo this summer, hoping to cash in on convenience. In most cities, this would simply be a sign of the fast-paced times.

It’s not that simple here.

In 1982, San Luis Obispo’s City Council tried to stamp out what it considered an ugly trend of asphalt and exhaust fumes when it passed an ordinance banning drive-throughs within city limits.

Java Connection and San Luis Drive-Thru Market resurrected the issue 16 years later, proving that any law has loopholes and posing the question: How bad are drive throughs, anyway?

Apparently, enough residents like the concept to keep business steady at San Luis Drive-Thru. The market, a boxy stucco building on Broad Street with a driving lane punched through its the center, opened in late July.

Drivers enter one end, Jiffy-Lube style, and attendants basket and bag the selected groceries. Customers drive out with their purchases without ever having to leave their cars.

“People get really excited about it. They love the store,” said manager Brad Hays.

“Some customers say they think it’s ridiculous that SLO doesn’t have any more drive-throughs.”

Java Connection, a drive-through espresso bar, opened last week in the Madonna Plaza shopping center. Its owners hope to lure drivers to their tiny shop with the promise of a gourmet latte on-the-go.

“For a lot of people it’s going to be a very nice convenience,” Said co-owner Ramona Neal.

San Luis Obispo has never put a premium on convenience, however. In city planning circles, it’s know for passing tough yet progressive ordinances. It was one of the first to ban smoking indoors and is one of the few cities to ban drive-throughs.

The no drive-through proposal cited the air-quality impacts of idling cars waiting for service and the visual impact of the paving used in drive-throughs.

The ordinance passed with little fanfare, and no discussion of the issue is recorded in the minutes kept by the council. The planning Commission had already held public hearings and decided that San Luis Obispo residents wanted to do away with drive-throughs.

“City ordinances change based on the needs of what the community wants,” said Mayor Allen Settle, who voted “no” on the issue as a councilman in 1982. “They’re the ones paying the bills.”

The ordinance passed 3-2.

It didn’t immediately do away with existing drive-throughs, but phased them out slowly. If a business stopped using its drive-through for more than six months, it could not re-establish one. One by one, the city’s drive-throughs disappeared.

The kiosk that currently housed Java Connection was formerly a store that bought and sold levies. Although ti was open for business just a few hours a week, it kept its drive-through status.

When Neal and partner John Lisle decided to open a drive-through espresso bar, they approached the owners of the Madonna Plaza shopping center and eventually leased the kiosk.

San Luis Drive-thru has more complicated history. Owner Kelly Gearhart of Atascadero began applying for building and use permits for the store in 1995. At the time the land was just outside city limits.

After gaining county approval for the drive-through store’s plans, Gearhart applied for his property to be annexed by the city. That was approved in 1996.

But the Planning Commission tacked on a restriction that left the owners little wiggle room to change their plans. If the property changes hands or converts to a different kind of business, it loses drive-through privileges.

“(Planning commissioners) were wondering if this was done purposefully as a way to slip a drive-through in the city, by getting it approved in the county and then having it annexed,” said Ron Whisenhand, development review manager in the city’s planning department.

Gearhart, who also owns a drive-through market in Atascadero, said this isn’t the case.

“It wasn’t done with the intentions of trying to get one over on someone.” Gearhart said. “Some have said that but it’s totally inaccurate.”

When building the store, Gearhart contends, he had trouble with the septic system. He decided it would be easier to have the project annexed by the city and connect to its sewage system.

Drive-through markets could pose health risks, said Larry Allen, a supervisor at the Air Pollution Control District.

“I think it’s generally a bad idea to have a drive-through market/liquor store and have emissions generated in a semi-enclosed environment where there’s food and and also people working,” Allen said.

But regular drive-throughs may not be as environmentally costly as was once thought, said Terry Parker, air quality specialist with the California Air Resources Board.

“The answer is generally no, drive-throughs are not worse. These days the fast-food restaurants generally move the customers through very quickly, cutting down on the idling time” Parker said.

The new drive-through businesses don’t bother Mayor Settle, who says the ban was put in place mainly to keep the city more pedestrian friendly.

“The areas they occupy have little to no walking environment anyway,” he said. “They have mostly all vehicular activities.”

San Luis Obispo fastfood restauranteurs may not be so welcoming.

“We never tried to get a drive-through because we knew it was against the rules,” said Tom Stenovec, the franchisee of San Luis Obispo’s three Taco Bells.

It would be a real serious blow to our business if another fast-food restaurant did get a drive-through, and we would fight that tooth and nail,” Stenovec said.

He said he also agrees with the spirit of the ordinance.

“It’s the little things like no drive-throughs that make this such a nice place,” he said. “I hat to see people getting around that through technicalities.”

Whisenand said he doesn’t expect any more new drive-throughs in San Luis Obispo.

“There’s not that many opportunities to establish drive-throughs in town,” he said. “I really can’t think of any others.”