Citizens shift formula food debate

Jim Cornelius, News Editor | Last updated Aug 09, 2005 12:0pm0

A compromise appears to be taking shape on the controversial question of franchise restaurants in Sisters.

If the compromise holds up, a citizens’ initiative to cap the number of formula food restaurants in Sisters could be withdrawn (see story, page 32).

Members of “Friends of Sisters,” an activist group that backs the initiative, met last week with representatives of the business and restaurant community in Sisters, including several developers, along with Mayor Dave Elliott.

All sides agreed that the meeting was fruitful.

“There is a kind of negotiation process going on,” said John Rahm, a planning commissioner who helped draft a formula food ordinance that was rejected by a 3-2 vote of the Sisters City Council. “I think there are significant areas of agreement and optimism on both sides and I think something constructive is probably going to come out of that.”

According to Rob Corrigan, who facilitated the meeting, the basic framework of the compromise is:

• A 12-month period in which no more drive-through restaurants would be approved.

• During that period, existing restaurants could relocate or be replaced under current codes.

• A citizens’ review committee would be appointed by the mayor to develop a set of architectural design restrictions specific to restaurants that would help the city avoid an influx of look-alike, “unappealing” developments.

Steve McGhehey, a local developer, participated in the meeting.

“It was one of the most positive meetings I’ve ever attended,” he said.

McGhehey has volunteered to gather funding for a rough draft of guidelines.

“My opinion through all of this has been that we should do this through design,” he said.

McGhehey believes it is possible to create codes and restrictions that would “do something specific with restaurants and protect how the town looks and not the name over the door.”

The city’s main concern about a cap on formula food restaurants is that it could leave the city vulnerable to Measure 37 property rights claims.

City Manager Eileen Stein said a compromise that pleases all sides reduces the likelihood of such claims.

Rahm told The Nugget that, if a compromise is hammered out in the next few weeks, the ballot initiative will likely go away.

“We’re perfectly happy to drop the initiative process in favor of something that maybe we can work out with the other side of the issue,” he said.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

Email: [email protected]
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Initiative would limit ‘formula food’

An initiative filed by Marie Clasen, Anne Perkins and Sarah Rahm of Sisters would limit the number of “formula food” restaurants in Sisters.

The ballot title filed last month with the City of Sisters seeks to amend the city’s development code and comprehensive plan to limit such restaurants to four no less than 1,000 feet apart.

The initiative defines a “formula food” restaurant as one that is “required by contract or other agreement to offer either standardized menus, ingredients, food preparation, decor, uniforms, architecture or design, signs or similar standardized features that cause it to be substantially identical to six or more other restaurants regardless of ownership or location.”

The initiative acknowledges the existence of four “formula food” restaurants: McDonald’s (currently being reconstructed after an arson fire), Figaro’s Pizza, Bad Ass Coffee Co. and Subway sandwich shop.

The initiative would allow these restaurants to “continue to operate, relocate or be replaced in conformance with these new provisions of the Sisters code.”

A proposed ordinance that contained the same provisions went down by a 3-2 vote before the Sisters City Council in June. Several councilors and city staff expressed concern that such restrictions would open the city to claims under the voter-approved Measure 37 initiative under which a claimant could make a case that he or she has the right to develop a property or bring in a tenant that falls under formula food restrictions and that the city has to waive restrictions or pay the value of the property.

The powerful lobbying group that led the charge on Measure 37 is backing an effort to challenge the Sisters initiative.

Oregonians in Action filed a challenge on behalf of local contractor Daryl Tewalt (spelled Darrell in legal papers), arguing that the initiative’s ballot title is “insufficient” in its descriptions of theinitiative’s effects on the law.

The challenge also claims that the initiative addresses more than one subject and fails to meet legal requirements in the way it is drafted.

However, the challenge itself is in doubt.

According to City Manager Eileen Stein, the challenge was received after the July 29 deadline, which may render it invalid. City Attorney Steve Bryant is preparing a court petition to dismiss the challenge.

The legal wrangling over the initiative could be moot.

Some citizens who backed the initiative are meeting with city officials and members of the business community to hammer out a compromise that could lead to withdrawal of the measure.