Council moves to standardize fast-food menu signs
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers FAST FOOD--Local drive-thru restaurants can have up to three separate signs to assist customers. The City Council recently approved guidelines on such signs for fast-food eateries. The council's action ensures that specific standards are set regarding drive-thru restaurant signs.

City drive-thrus serving people on the go who are hungry for hamburgers, tacos, shakes, sodas and fries now have a municipal code regulating the size of the signs.

The Thousand Oaks City Council voted 3-2 to accept staff recommendations and approve new standards and definitions for drive-thru restaurants regarding their signs.

Councilmembers Claudia Bill-de la Peña and Jacqui Irwin preferred the planning commission recommendations. Councilmembers Dennis Gillette, Tom Glancy and Andy Fox agreed with the staff's recommendations.

"Sometimes I think we carry aesthetics to the extreme in this community in place of practicality," Fox said. "When you go through a drive-thru, you're there to order a burger, and you need to be able to see the sign and you want to get through that line as fast as possible, get your food to go where you're going."

City staff took a look at fastfood restaurants in Thousand Oaks and in other communities before they recommended different standards from those preferred by the planning commission, said John Prescott, community development director.

The ordinance will allow three signs--one preview board, one menu board and one order board--for drive-thru restaurants.

Customers see a preview board with menu items before they pull up to the menu board. Menu boards display the menu, and the order board is displayed where customers speak with an attendant while placing orders.

After surveying 10 cities, the staff reported the average sign area to be about 33 square feet, with the average height at 7 feet.

In its survey of the 16 drive-thru restaurants in Thousand Oaks, city staff found the average preview board to be about 15 square feet in area and 6 feet high. The average menu board is about 39 square feet in area and 7 feet high.

The largest preview board in town was said to be at Taco Bell, 25 S. Rancho Road. Its area was more than 55 square feet and its height more than 8 feet. The largest menu board, with an area of 36 square feet and a height of more than 6 feet, was found at Jack-in-the-Box, 484 Moorpark Road.

City staff recommended larger signs than the planning commission wanted. The planning commission recommended preview boards no bigger than 6 feet high with an area of 15 square feet. The staff recommended they be no bigger than 7 feet high with an area of 20 square feet. The planning commission recommendation for menu boards was no bigger than 7 feet with 35 square feet. The staff recommended a 7-foot height limit with the area not to exceed 45 square feet.

City staff recommended order boards are not to exceed 5 square feet in area.

Any business that wants to exceed the new code standards will have to apply for a special use permit.

The ordinance also provided a definition of a drive-thru restaurant. It states: "Drivet-through restaurant shall mean an eating establishment designed and operated to serve food and drinks to customers who drive their vehicles up to a service window to receive the food and drinks that they ordered, regardless of whether service is also provided to customers inside the restaurant or at a walk-up window."

The municipal code change was initiated by the planning commission. The Business Roundtable also recommended standards be adopted to streamline the process of dealing with the issue of drive-thru signs. The existing municipal code didn't define or provide design standards for the signs, so businesses were always required to get a special use permit.