WALNUT CREEK – Plans for a brand new Chick-fil-A in a Walnut Creek shopping mall have sparked a heated dispute between a whole bunch of neighbors and city planners – and left considered one of the last tenants there caught within the crossfire.
Residents and public officials are divided over whether the fast-food chicken chain's alternative of a vacant bank on the Citrus Marketplace Shopping Center will breathe recent life into this sleepy Walnut Creek square or further increase traffic on the nearby, busy Ygnacio Valley Road bypass.
Rica Zaharia opened her bakery, European delicaciesopened on the property two years ago, and it has turn out to be a well-liked hidden gem in the case of making croissants, brioche, pavlova, strudel and other internationally inspired baked goods baked fresh from scratch.
Now surrounded by 10 vacant lots, the 63-year-old Transylvanian native has welcomed the concept of a brand new Chick-fil-A with open arms – not due to menu or conservative politics, but due to its potential to generate much-needed customer traffic and protect the plaza's small businesses, which she says are currently “dying daily.” Current tenants within the quiet plaza include a BevMo, Panda Express, a small ice cream shop, a youth gymnastics center, a post office and a hair salon.
Despite the town's intention to draw more businesses to the still-vacant lots, Zaharia was the one Walnut Creek resident to specific support for the initiative.
“Please don't hate me,” Zaharia said on the May 21 City Council meeting, addressing the backlash against her position on the Chick-fil-A proposal. “More than any other mall in Walnut Creek, this place feels like a ghost town.”
The issuance of Chick-fil-A's first constructing permits has infuriated dozens of neighbors within the affluent Woodlands neighborhood up the road, who’ve argued vehemently that the proposed Chick-fil-A at 2290 Oak Grove Road would increase automotive traffic on already congested and dangerous streets in the town's northernmost corner, lower property values and attract drifters and criminals.
Despite concessions from the town's elected officials – including prohibiting the development of a drive-thru lane for the 5,363-square-foot Chick-fil-A project, requiring the restaurant to shut at the least 10 p.m., and requiring traffic, odor and other mitigation measures – neighbors were still upset concerning the Approval of the town council in May.
Now, Zaharia said she's coping with strong backlash from her neighbors — including threats of a boycott — because she believes a Chick-fil-A would help your entire mall and her own business, which has experienced a steep financial downturn for the reason that first fried chicken dispute. She needed to cut the bakery's hours in late July after recording the weakest month in sales within the two years she's worked at Citrus Marketplace.
“When people start telling me and others how to think and do things, that is not acceptable,” Zaharia said in an interview. “I have worked 17 hours almost every day for the past two years – starting at 3 a.m. I am not tired because I do everything out of passion and to make my customers happy, but we cannot find enough people to sell our products to.”
After five hours of intense public testimony – which, apart from Zaharia’s comments, was entirely directed against Chick-fil-A – The Walnut Creek City Council unanimously rejected the appeal to the restaurant's design plans.
City staff said any traffic spike attributable to the fast-food chain can be minimal, as they determined that Chick-fil-A would only add a couple of seconds to the common wait time at this busy intersection. The project will now be sent back to Walnut Creek's Design Review Commission for final consideration of the long run restaurant's planned architecture, landscaping and signage.
During the project's public comment period, opponents dismissed data from months of research by Walnut Creek's city planners and transportation consultants, demanding that the town reject Chick-fil-A's plans or at the least delay their approval, arguing that the town is giving fried chicken an undue priority over their neighborhood's character and quality of life.
“The City Council has tried for several years to create a culture, charm and feel of a small community,” said Corban Porter, an attorney and Woodlands resident who has appealed previous project approvals. “We submitted 200 signatures from Woodlands residents and nearly 700 surveys, most of which highlighted health and safety concerns … to allow this to happen without conducting a more comprehensive study of the neighborhood is irresponsible.”
While a handful of speakers raved concerning the delicious baked goods at European Delights and expressed their support for similar small businesses, the Woodlands can't have their pastries and eat them too.
First, city officials argued, there was no legal reason why Walnut Creek could reject the project outright during its May 21 meeting since it was consistent with the town's zoning and general development plan. Second, Chick-fil-A's construction might have been quickly approved months ago if the corporate had not opted for a conditional constructing permit to supply take-out food.
In addition to safety concerns concerning the many young individuals who walk or bike to nearby schools, many residents also expressed concern concerning the Atlanta-based chicken restaurant's conservative repute and its history as a funder of anti-LGBTQ groups.
Chick-fil-A “does not reflect the inclusive and diverse values of our community,” says Jessica Hunt, who has lived in Woodlands for 40 years, owns an area small business and might be the brand new president of the Valley Verde Elementary School Parent Council.
Council member Kevin Wilk also identified that Citrus Marketplace is virtually empty. Business suffered a pointy decline after March 2022, when a former Nob Hill food market on the property closed, which was blamed on skyrocketing rents. Since then, it has turn out to be increasingly difficult to get other businesses to sign business leases, in keeping with representatives of DPI Realty, the space's landlord since 2001.
Wilk lives near the Woodlands but even closer to traffic that results in Whole Foods, Walgreens, Rocco's Pizzeria and other stores within the Encina Grande Shopping Center, lower than a half-mile from Citrus Marketplace across Ygnacio Valley Road. After explaining that traffic near his home will not be as bad as he once feared, he dismissed the notion that city officials haven’t rigorously considered the small print and impacts of Chick-fil-A's future development.
“It's not like companies have to break down the doors of the shopping centers and operate their businesses there,” Wilk said. “We have a shopping center there now, which we need to survive.”
Originally published:
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