Letter to the Editor: Response to Stroscher Comments on Proposed In-N-Out

C.R. “CASEY” YADON, San Juan Capistrano

I’d like to address some inaccuracies of the (Feb. 26 Capistrano Dispatch article related to Andrew Stroscher’s comments). The first is the traffic congestion. Mr. Stroscher’s assumption that there will be no more impact to the traffic pattern than the opening of the Target and the Chick-fil-A is seriously flawed. First, to assume that the traffic pattern from a Target is the same as the traffic pattern from an In-N-Out drive-thru is downright ludicrous. Second, neither the Target nor the Chick-fil-A has to contend with three high-volume drive-thru restaurants directly across the street. Third, Mr. Stroscher is making his observations during a period of depressed traffic environment due to the COVID-19 closures and is ignoring this. Del Obispo Street will only get busier, much busier. People will continue to use Del Taco, McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr., DeNault’s, and Taco Bell, as well as his new Chick-fil-A and Target. Let’s not make San Juan Capistrano fast food central.

The second, he states, is the community outcry has only come from a “small slice” of the community and then, only from those who have spoken out against commercial development for the past 30 or 40 years. I have only lived here a couple of years, but couldn’t help notice the increased daily volume of traffic on Ortega Hwy., and most everyone I’ve talked to is not aware of past commercial developments, but they are extremely concerned about the ill-fated possibility of adding another drive-thru restaurant along Del Obispo Street, which would only exacerbate the traffic problem. Development in a town as charming as ours is inevitable, but poorly conceived, greedy, ugly and irresponsible development is a choice, and I hope with all my heart that we choose better than this.

In-N-Out is not a bad idea, just not at the Marie Callender’s site, not in our town center area. The Stonehill site, where they will be building the new Ganahl Lumber, will include two fast food pads as part of the development, plus it will have signalized ingress and egress to better facilitate the increased flow of vehicles, resulting from two drive-thru restaurants. This makes for a much better fit.