No matter where you place them, Chick-fil-As are busy and rake in the dough. Financial disclosures from 2021 show that its locations on average make over $7 million per year. All one has to do is look at the lines their locations typically have around them. But all those customers and long drive-thru lines are a bit of a problem for one California city. The L.A. Times reports that Santa Barbara is ready to declare one Chick-fil-A location a public nuisance thanks to its drive-thru traffic.
Chick-fil-A opened its location in Santa Barbara in 2013. Since then, the drive-thru lines have gotten longer, and residents and business owners say traffic is blocking everything from business entrances to bike lanes. Per the Times:
Chick-fil-A has operated at the location since 2013 and draws a steady stream of customers whose vehicles block driveway entrances to nearby businesses, jam up the bicycle lane, block the sidewalk and force city buses and emergency vehicles to detour around the area, according to public planning reports.
It’s gotten so bad that the city even suggested that the company hire private security to handle traffic duties. It’s like a damn chicken sandwich concert or something.
The complaints aren’t unfounded though. The location sits on a main street called State. A traffic report complied by the city shows that the line in the drive-thru gets so bad, it can block traffic on State in a single lane for over 90 minutes on weekdays and 155 minutes on Saturday (Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays). Many think that the location has outgrown its site. And the owner has apologized and says a solution is being worked on:
On behalf of myself, Chick-fil-A and the many team members, we sincerely regret that this traffic situation has come to this point and heartily wish to work in good faith with the city to resolve this matter once and for all.
The city is giving the location 90 days to get its shit together. But local residents feel like Chick-fil-A is only just now acknowledging that its drive-thru traffic has been a problem. One resident made it seem as if the location is scrambling under the threat of the nuisance title:
Over the years, you’ve had Chick-fil-A putting together their fixes that really did not do much to fix the traffic problem. But then you have the city coming forward with a possible nuisance title, and the corporation is now saying, ‘Oh my goodness, please just give us more time to solve this.
While the city has instructed its attorney to hold off on filing the public nuisance paperwork until June, Chick-fil-A may just realize it’s time to move to a bigger and better location: a permit has been applied for a new location to open just two miles west.