CANOGA PARK : Eatery Loses Bid to Stay Open All Night

A City Council committee Tuesday rejected a proposal to allow a planned Jack In The Box restaurant in Canoga Park to operate around the clock.

Councilwoman Laura Chick had initially indicated she would support unlimited hours for the restaurant, planned for De Soto Avenue and Vanowen Street, despite protests from local residents that a 24-hour drive-through would worsen crime problems in the area.

But in the end she voted with the majority on the Planning Land Use Management Committee. Eric Rose, the councilwoman’s spokesman, said she had changed her mind after learning that it would not be possible to review the drive-through after a year as she had hoped.

“We were under the assumption that we could put conditions” on the proposal, he said. “After a review (of planning regulations) by the city attorney, we were told we could not.”

That left the councilwoman with an all-or-nothing choice, Rose said. “We decided not to lock our feet in concrete with the possibility that there could be an increase in criminal activity,” he added.

Gina Devlin, a spokeswoman for the company that owns the Jack In The Box chain, said the company would not appeal the committee’s decision to the full City Council and would go ahead with plans to open the Canoga Park restaurant by the middle of next year. “While we would have liked to have seen a 24-hour drive-through, we’re certainly satisfied with the extended hours we have,” she said.

The committee did vote to allow the restaurant to operate from 6 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends.