Eighteen years after a dispute over freeway signs prompted In-N-Out Burger to give up on building a restaurant in Escondido, a city panel has given a ringing endorsement to the popular chain's latest request for a freeway sign that is larger than city rules allow.

The City Council's economic development subcommittee unanimously agreed Thursday that In-N-Out's sign request should be honored and that the city should do everything it can to help the chain open its first Escondido location as quickly as possible.

A company official at the meeting said strong cooperation from the city could allow the new restaurant, which would be located at Valley Parkway and Interstate 15, to open in less than six months. On such a timeline, Escondido residents would be eating In-N-Out burgers in their own city by late February or early March.

Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and Councilman Dick Daniels, who make up the subcommittee, predicted the new restaurant would draw enormous crowds when it opens behind Del Taco and Coco's.

"Every group I talk to always wants to know why we don't have an In-N-Out in Escondido," said Daniels, noting that he had gotten such a request from a Methodist church men's group this week. "A lot of angst has built up about this over the years."

Pfeiler said she first became aware of In-N-Out's legendary popularity when she ran for her first City Council seat in 1992, one year after the ugly sign dispute.

"People kept saying to me, 'If you vote for an In-N-Out sign, I'll vote for you,'" said Pfeiler. "It's taken a long time for In-N-Out to come back, and we're glad to have you here."

Keith Gilbert, the company's project manager for the Escondido site, said In-N-Out officials told him to get the restaurant built as soon as possible. Unlike most projects the city has approved recently, Gilbert said In-N-Out would not be waiting for the economy to recover.

The exemption would allow In-N-Out to add a roughly 300-square-foot sign to a tower sign along the west side of I-15 that already features large signs for a Comfort Inn and a Holiday Inn Express. City rules allow for either the In-N-Out sign or the signs for the hotels, but not both together.

However, city planning chief Jon Brindle said the city had allowed exemptions to the rule before, including the large electronic display sign for the Escondido Auto Park.

Daniels said he was pleased that the In-N-Out sign would be below the hotel signs instead of above them.

"This is not going to make the sign taller and it may actually make it looks less spindly," said Daniels. "We're not adding height, we're just fitting it in, so I don't think it violates the spirit of the sign ordinance."

The mayor was less precise, simply saying that the history of the issue meant she had no intention of hassling In-N-Out about its sign requests. She said last week that the exemption made sense because the sign would be in a busy commercial area near large shopping centers, such as the Target plaza.

The full council must approve the exemption Oct. 14, but In-N-Out officials said they would not wait for that hearing to move forward with engineering and planning efforts.

The sign dispute in 1991 cost Escondido a chance to land the third In-N-Out in San Diego County.

Escondido was slated to follow Lemon Grove and Vista as the first cities where Los Angeles-based In-N-Out would build in the county, but the disagreement prompted the company to abandon a site near El Norte Parkway.

Company officials have insisted they did not hold a grudge over the sign dispute. But Escondido residents have had to watch the company build more than a dozen restaurants in the county since then, including locations in smaller cities such as Carlsbad, El Cajon and National City.

The vacant 1.18-acre site, which has space for 10 outdoor tables, is the former location of Fogarty's nightclub. It was earmarked for a Candlewood Suites extended-stay hotel until the recession gave that project's developer second thoughts this spring.

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468.

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