Taco Bell wants permit to rebuild aging restaurant

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Planning Commission wants restrictions on restaurant’s drive-through and operations

By JANE MCCLURE

Taco Bell 1Taco Bell wants city approval to rebuild its aging restaurant at 565 N Snelling Ave. But the conditional use permit, under study by the St. Paul Planning Commission for an Aug. 21 vote, could restrict restaurant drive-through window and operations. Conditions are eyed to address what neighbors and some Planning Commission members contend is a longstanding pattern of nuisance behavior.

The permit request has roiled the neighborhood, with some people liking the restaurant’s extended drive-through hours and others describing it as “taco hell.”

Hamline Midway Coalition and neighbors recommended denial of the permit, as did city planning staff. But denying the permit and not allowing the restaurant owner, Border Foods, to rebuild is seen by some Planning Commission members as simply allowing the existing restaurant to operate in a disruptive manner.

The conditions may include setting drive-through hours from 7am until midnight Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with 1am closing Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Other conditions focus on litter collection, time and location of deliveries, use of off-duty police or private security from 10pm until closing, and other conditions meant to reduce impacts on neighbors.

The window is currently open until 4am on weekdays and 5am weekends. A city staff study showed that the hours are some of the longest in the city.

All fast food restaurants and all drive-through uses in St. Paul require conditional use permits  to regulate hours of operation, noise, and distance from other uses. Taco Bell needs its new permit modified so its drive-through can be less than the 60 feet minimum from an Edmund Ave. home. The restaurant owners also want 20 parking spaces (which is more than required) and to have lower percentages than required for exterior landscaping, and window and door openings. The Planning Commission recommended approval of 18 parking spaces and approved a landscaping variance but sent the building plans back to the drawing board by rejecting the variance to door and window openings.

What is now Taco Bell was built in 1973 as Zapata restaurant. Its zoning at that time was commercial. The zoning was changed over Border Foods’ objections in 2011, becoming traditional neighborhood. That rezoning was done as part of long-range land use planning along Green Line light-rail.

Taco Bell 2City records show that Zapata got a conditional use permit for the restaurant in 1973. But the city has no records of zoning or building permits being pulled when the drive-through window was installed. So there never was the chance for the city to put conditions on the drive-through window because it never received a conditional use permit.

Neighbors Mark and Kristine Vesley, who live just west of Taco Bell, contended last year that Taco Bell is a nonconforming use in the traditional neighborhood zoned area. The city zoning administrator disagreed but indicated that when a new drive-through window is proposed, a new conditional use permit is required. The Vesleys lost a case before the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.

Barb Schneider, Border Foods Vice President, said the permit and variances should be granted. She said variances are needed because of the small site and the desire to accommodate parking. She and other restaurant representatives also said Taco Bell is working with St. Paul Police to control behavior.

But neighbors said the restaurant has, over the years, added to its hours of operations and become a nuisance. Neighbors say their current hours till 4am and 5am makes it a magnet for people after bar closing. They described loud noise, drunken behavior, loitering, littering and public urination.

“I can stand in my back yard and take orders,” said Thomas Ave. resident Bernie Hesse.

Kristine Vesley said the noise and behavior have gotten worse, and that hours need to be restricted. She asked that the drive-through be closed at midnight weekdays and 1am on weekends.

“This has become too intense a use to be next to a residential area,” said Mark Vesley. He and others said the drive-through hours increased with no neighborhood notice. The restaurant staff doesn’t respond to requests to turn down the speaker boxes.

Planning Commission members originally discussed denying the request but laid over the issue to allow time for staff research. Several commissioners said they took seriously the six pages of police reports between 2012 and 2015, as well as the videotapes made of late-night patron behavior.

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