Mayor Javier Lopez’s pressure on the Ceres Planning Commission to reject an application to build a new chicken restaurant on Hatch Road caught the ire of one Ceres resident at Monday’s Ceres City Council meeting.
Resident Shirley Rogers’ questions for the mayor sparked a heated exchange that lasted over two and a half minutes.
She questioned why the mayor dispatched Irene Ortiz to speak on his behalf at the August 19 Planning Commission to urge members to vote against Pollo Campero’s application to build a new restaurant at 1355 Hatch Road, immediately west of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant. Ortiz conveyed that the mayor opined that the city doesn’t want similar businesses located next to one another and hinted that the project would be appealed to the council where “there is a strong possibility that this establishment will not be able to open at this location.”
The commission unanimously approved the Pollo Campero application because the commercial zoning designation of the parcel allows the fast-food restaurant, regardless of what is next door.
While commissioners noted that Pollo Campero is proposed next door to Raising Cane’s and in close proximity to Popeye’s Chicken, Planning Commissioner Bob Kachel said the commission had no grounds to reject a project that complies with the Community Commercial zoning.
“You can’t just arbitrarily say, well, we don’t like businesses A, B, C, we would rather have X, Y, Z,” said Kachel at the Aug. 19 meeting. “We can’t do that without tools in the zoning code and the Zoning Ordinance and for this particular property say, no, you can’t put more fast-food restaurants there because we don’t want them. Unfortunately right now the zone says you can put more fast-food restaurants there.”
Pollo Campero is a Guatemalan version of a fried chicken restaurant and looking to expand to 250 locations by 2028.
“I personally, as a citizen, would like a choice of chicken,” Rogers told the mayor on Monday. “I know this sounds kind of petty but why were you were trying to influence the Planning Commission?”
“I think that it’s improper for you to say that I’m influencing – not if you would mind if I can respond, Shirley, with all due respect,” replied Mayor Lopez.
Rogers chided Lopez for approaching the commission as the mayor to express his opinion and not as a private citizen.
Lopez then suggested he feels the commission made a “flawed decision,” saying, “As this council appoints planning commissioners, they are also responsible for making the right decisions.”
The Pollo Campero approval by the Planning Commission stands unless it is appealed to the council, which the mayor hinted would be done.
“As a mayor, don’t stop business,” Rogers sharply told the mayor. “We are too small a town to support all these businesses. People come off the freeway from other towns. We are a bedroom town. Let the people have a choice when they get here. If you want to say ‘no’ as a citizen, fine, but before it comes to the City Council, to me, you have no say so.”
“Actually, I do,” commented Lopez. “I am the mayor of this city and I have a responsibility that we don’t continue to do such as we’ve done by building gas stations next to gas stations. It is my opinion that we should not be building chicken places next to chicken places and that’s just my opinion. I am the mayor. So, like I said, I will defend myself because I think that it’s important that everybody understands that. And I’m sure the Ceres Courier will be having a field day with my comments.”
