OCEANSIDE -- Residents and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez have won their fight to get a traffic signal at the site of the city's first Hooters Restaurant.
The restaurant is scheduled to open in June near El Camino Country Club, but it won't open without a traffic signal at the intersection of Valley Glen Drive and Vista Way.
The signal had turned into a big issue for Sanchez and some nearby residents living off Valley Glen Drive.
Last June, Sanchez said she wanted to appeal the council's approval of the restaurant because of traffic concerns, but that she gave it up when she couldn't convince other council members to support her.
But she succeeded in convincing city officials to conduct a new traffic study last year on the intersection, and that study indicated that the intersection does need a traffic signal.
City Transportation Planner John Amberson said the city and the developer agreed two weeks ago to share the cost of the signal, which will cost about $100,000 to $120,000. Amberson said the developer will pay for building the signal and then be reimbursed for its portion of the signal by the city. The city will pay 55 percent of the traffic signal, and HootWinc will pay 45 percent, he said.
Irv Noren, the president of the Camino Crest Homeowners Association near the El Camino Country Club, said that most motorists drive as fast down the hill from El Camino Real as they do on freeways. He said the traffic from Hooters will only aggravate the traffic situation.
"We needed (the signal) in the first place (because) it's dangerous out there," said Noren, who was representing his homeowner's association in an attempt to secure the traffic signal. "It's the best news I have heard in a long time."
The developer, HootWinc Inc., a Hooters franchise, owns 16 Hooters restaurants in Washington, Nebraska, Iowa and California.
Hooters, an international chain of more than 330 restaurants, including three in San Diego, likes to tout itself as a community-minded business than does work for local charities and community causes. Fred Sigmund, HootWinc's director of development and purchasing, said that's one of the reasons the company will share in the signal's cost.
"We want to be seen as good neighbors," Sigmund said. "We're very community-oriented."
Sanchez said this week she's still not satisfied with the signal deal, saying the developer should have footed the entire bill.
The problem, city officials said, is that the developer can't be forced to pay the entire cost of the signal because it wasn't an original condition of approval for the project.
Sanchez characterized that as "a $50,000 mistake."
She said the city's contract with the developer should have stated that the developer would pay for the light if it was necessary. Sanchez said that $50,000 could pay the annual salary of a city employee.
More jobs
Councilman Jack Feller said last week that both the office building and the restaurant would bring jobs to the community.
Feller said he didn't feel the traffic signal was needed at this point, but that it could be beneficial in the future. He said Hooters is not much different than a local sports bar, in its clientele and atmosphere.
"This (traffic signal controversy) wouldn't be an ounce of a story if … the sign (on the restaurant) said anything other than Hooters," Feller said.
While the restaurant is expected to have the distinct feel of any Hooters restaurant with its sports theme and waitresses wearing tight orange-and-white uniforms, it will not look like a typical restaurant. That's because the restaurant building will also feature two floors of office space that will include the franchise corporate office for HootWinc.
Sigmund said the three-story mission-style building will "look more like an office building than a restaurant." But he said the patio and distinctive high-flying Hooters sign will make finding the restaurant easy.
Construction on the restaurant and office building should begin in two or three weeks, Sigmund said. The company has already begun grading the site, located just east of El Camino Real. A Days Inn sits just west of the site, with an Extended StayAmerica to the east and the El Camino Country Club golf course to the north.
Sigmund said the third floor of the building will be leased as office space. He said the plans call for a second building, possibly a two-story office building that is either leased or custom built for sale.
"We want to enhance the community," Sigmund said, adding that just the restaurant and office space for Hooters alone should bring more than 100 jobs to the community. "It's really going to be a beautiful site, it's good for everybody."
Contact staff writer Rob O'Dell at (760) 901-4067, or at rodell@nctimes.com.
