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By Clara Helm
Del Obispo Street in San Juan Capistrano might be more packed with restaurant options in the future, as Chipotle Mexican Grill seeks to construct a new eatery near the strip of other convenience restaurants.
On July 3, the project applicants submitted a Discretionary Use Permit (DUP) to the City of San Juan Capistrano to construct a new location with a pick-up window at 31791 Del Obispo Street—where the new In-N-Out Burger franchise is currently under construction.
The new restaurant would be one-story and have an outdoor patio seating area for customers. Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., the proposed Chipotle Mexican Grill would have an average of 16 employees a day working at the restaurant, according to Chipotle’s application.
In its letter of intent to the city, the project’s architect specified that the pick-up window would be called a “Chipotlane,” differing from traditional drive-throughs because of it being a solely mobile order pick-up area.
In this format, customers will only be able to order food through the restaurant website and mobile apps, so customers will not be able to order or pay for food at the window, cutting down wait times significantly.
Because the restaurant is classified as a drive-through facility, municipal code dictates that its DUP must be approved by the San Juan Capistrano City Council.
In this review process of the DUP, the City Council will conduct a preliminary development review in which any project constraints or potential development opportunities will be considered.
The City Council’s preliminary development review will take place on a date that is to be determined by the council, the project applicant and the property owner.
The property owner, Andrew Stroscher, made clear that this application process will purposefully take longer than usual, sometime into the next year, because of the recently approved In-N-Out Burger building that sits on the same parcel of land.
“We sent the application in, but the intent was to just kind of let it sit idle until after In-N-Out has been open for a couple of months, at least,” said Stroscher.
Then, the next step for Stroscher and his team will be to submit a formal entitlement application that is reviewed by the city staff.
If the application is completed to staff satisfaction, the project would then be subject to review by the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, Design Review Committee and the Planning Commission.
The City Council will then make the final decision on the project, taking into consideration the recommendations made by the three commissions and committees.
As the Chipotle restaurant and the In-N-Out are being built by the same property owner, the asphalt parking lot being put in place in phase one of the In-N-Out construction will also be used for the Mexican Grill.
As stated in its letter of intent to the city, the applicant has already completed traffic studies by third parties that have concluded the pick-up lane will not increase traffic at the restaurant.
Based on the data these preliminary traffic studies found, the cars in the pick-up lane will average “less than one minute at the window,” and there will be “four vehicles or less in the queue on average, with a peak of six cars in the lane at peak hours.”
Although the proposed restaurant will likely be completed at a later date, Stroscher said he hopes to dispel any public concern by assuring the restaurant will not be causing traffic disruption and congestion in the area because of its efficient mobile ordering system.
