- March 29, 2024
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How far will Winter Park go to keep fast food off of Fairbanks?
Winter Park’s Planning and Zoning Board discussed a change to an ordinance on Tuesday that could ban restaurants with drive-through windows along West Fairbanks Avenue – the latest effort by the city to keep away unwanted fast food chains.
The ordinance could be the biggest step Winter Park has taken to ban fast food since the city’s fast food ordinance passed in September 2013, which banned such restaurants along Park Avenue. The language from that law includes a list of criteria for what makes a restaurant “fast food,” which included payment before food is consumed, customers busing their own tables and disposable tableware.
Restaurants that show at least two of these traits have been prohibited from joining Park Avenue ever since. Meanwhile, BurgerFi and Panera Bread along Park Avenue are protected under a grandfather clause and must follow specific regulations laid out by the city.
Tuesday’s agenda item came about after a Dunkin Donuts recently approached the city about building a new location along the north side of Fairbanks Avenue near the Triangle Auto Parts. Planning and Community Development Manager Jeff Briggs said the city realized that city’s current definition of fast food not only prohibits Dunkin Donuts, but other sit-down restaurants that have become more desirable as well, due to them meeting two of the “fast food” criteria.
Many eateries along Fairbanks today would be banned under the 2013 definition of fast food if they hadn’t been grandfathered in, Briggs said.
“If this definition had been there a few years back, we couldn’t have 4 Rivers or B&B Junction,” said Briggs, explaining that such restaurants are not considered “fast food,” but “fast casual,” where a customer orders at a counter before being given their food.
“Clearly we have a problem.”
City staff suggested that the Planning and Zoning Board solve the problem by voting to redefine “fast food” along Fairbanks Avenue. The board had the option of either banning all restaurants with drive-through windows outright, or banning all drive-through restaurants with the exception of coffee and breakfast eateries like Starbucks and Einstein Bagels.
The proposed ban would apply along West Fairbanks Avenue from I-4 to Shoreview Avenue, just west of U.S. Highway 17-92.
Briggs also suggested that if the board didn’t care if fast food chains were built along Fairbanks Avenue, they could simply vote to remove the definition of fast food all together from the language.
Board Member Shelia De Ciccio said she was hesitant to ban all drive-through restaurants along Fairbanks Avenue.
“I see the trend of more and more restaurants going to drive through,” De Ciccio said. “I’m afraid that if we just limit it to breakfast, what if 4 Rivers puts a drive-through window in?”
De Ciccio suggested accepting restaurants on a case-by-case basis, but that wouldn’t be possible, Briggs said.
“The difficulty is we can’t deny a business because we don’t like it because it’s Arby’s,” Briggs said.
The Planning and Zoning Board voted to table the item until a future meeting and will further discuss the issue at a work session later this month.