SANTA CRUZ— The Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant at Branciforte Avenue and Water Street has closed, in part because of what the owner calls "restrictive" city regulations governing where businesses can install a drive-up window. "It's tough to operate here without a drive-thru," said Mike Baker, who has owned the store for six years. "That's a big draw for parents with kids and the elderly and disabled." A city regulation last updated in the mid-1980s says a drive-thru cannot be located adjacent to a residential district, within a quarter-mile of another drive-through or on a parcel that is within 300 feet of an intersection with a signal light. The KFC failed to meet the last criteria. The regulations were meant to avoid traffic conflicts at intersections and keep vehicles from idling and polluting the air next to people's homes, said senior city planner Eric Marlatt. Marlatt said there haven't been many, if any, calls to change the rule governing drive-thru placement in the three years he's worked for the city Planning Department. But those restrictions made it "difficult to keep up with the times," said Baker, who closed the store late last month. Baker cited other reasons for the closure. KFC corporate expected franchises to upgrade the interior and exterior of each chain store this year. Baker said he wasn't making enough to warrant that work. "When you don't have a drive-up to offset costs, but have to spend a lot to do upgrades inside and out; it just didn't make sense," he said. Baker did make upgrades at his Capitola KFC/A&W restaurant on 41st Avenue last summer. Baker also cited passage of a Senate bill last fall that will require small employers to provide health insurance to workers and their dependents by 2007 as a factor in his decision. Larger companies, those with 200 workers or more, must comply by 2006. For now, property owner Dawn Iuliano is looking for a new tenant and says she'd like to see a more "Santa Cruz ... student-oriented place to hang out" go in at the site. "You know, veggie burgers and ... live music," said Iuliano, whose family will build the property to suit a new owner. If there are no takers, the family, who owned the restaurant before selling it to Baker, may open a new eatery there, she said. Reprinted with permission from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, By Karen A. Davis Contact:Karen A. Davis at kdavis@santacruzsentinel.com
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