News

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Monday, July 28 (4:30 p.m.): The Walnut Creek Planning Commission has unanimously approved conditional use permits and design review for a Taco Bell drive-thru restaurant planned in the Rossmoor Shopping Center.

Barring an appeal of that approval, the restaurant’s backers can begin the building permit process with the city.

Plans call for the 1,500-square-foot Taco Bell to be built on what are now parking spaces alongside Rossmoor Parkway north of the Chevron gas station and southwest of the Safeway grocery store. The restaurant, which would take 35 parking spaces out of circulation, includes a drive-thru that, like the inside seating area of the restaurant, would be open until midnight.

The city’s Design Review Commission had, in June, approved the drive-thru remaining open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The Planning Commission cut drive-thru hours back to midnight seven days a week; the Safeway store and a few others in the center are also open until midnight.

Several residents of the neighborhood just east of the shopping center spoke out against the proposed fast food restaurant. Some said the additional traffic it would bring would present a safety hazard; others contended that the presence of the restaurant would adversely affect their property values, or create additional litter, or that fast food simply isn’t what they want near their homes.

Jeff Shane told the commissioners that many of the pedestrians in the area are seniors “with limited mobility,” and that the restaurant would only add to the congestion. There are other issues, too, he said.

“Taco Bell is not an upscale, or even a mid-level, restaurant, and we don’t want it in our neighborhood,” Shane told the commission.

While the planning commissioners agreed to roll back the drive-thru hours, and asked for revised building colors that better match the rest of the shopping center, they also said a Taco Bell will have utility in this neighborhood.

This restaurant would be operated by Diversified Restaurant Group, a franchisee for some 300 Taco Bell and Arby’s restaurants. Henry Grieve, representing DRG, told the commission, “We don’t expect this to be … a super-busy Taco Bell, to be completely frank. This is going to be a smaller-town Taco Bell, with some feel to it.”

Commissioners including Vice Chair Pamela Nieting said it’s a plus that the Taco Bell project won’t  require creating another driveway from Rossmoor Parkway, as access to waiting lines for cars (including one specifically for mobile order pickup) is from the shopping center parking lot.

“It seems like this restaurant is designed to serve the people who order by mobile app (Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats) as well as people that might be stopping by because they have late-night jobs,” Commissioner Steven Kwok said. “These are the customers that stand to benefit from this Taco Bell.”