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McDonald’s a no-go in Los Osos

January 22, 2015

mcdonaldsThe dozens of Los Osos residents who protested the approval of a McDonald’s restaurant will not have to see one in their town after all. [Sierra2theSea]

Last April, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted to let McDonald’s open with a drive-through in the former Bank of America building in Los Osos. But, a spokesperson for the project has now said that the deal did not work out due to high expenses.

The majority of the approximately 100 people who attended the final county meeting on the Los Osos McDonald’s opposed the project. Though the board approved construction of the restaurant, it placed several conditions on the fast food chain.

If the McDonald’s were to open in Los Osos, it could only operate from 5 a.m. to midnight on Monday through Thursday. It could remain open until 1 a.m. on Friday through Sunday.

Many McDonald’s restaurants operate 24 hours a day, and the project applicant requested that the Los Osos chain operate around the clock.

Opponents of the project voiced concerns over water usage, architecture, noise lighting and food quality. At a planning meeting early in the approval process, those with differing opinions on the project began cursing and yelling at each other.

A possibility remains of a new McDonald’s opening on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo near the airport. If a restaurant is built outside the city limits, it could have a drive-through.

One McDonald’s restaurant recently went out of business in San Luis Obispo, where drive-throughs are banned.

McDonald’s Corporation’s stock dropped over the second half of last year. The company finished 2014 with its worst performance in 30 years.


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Freedom of Choice!!!! That’s what many of these people demand, except when it comes to something they dislike! in this case an individual wants to invest a huge amount of money because they think someone wants what they have to offer Los Osos (McDonalds).


Let us make the choice.


If we don’t want it, we will not go and they will close it down to the same shell it is now-no more/no less. The problem with many of THESE people is that they do not want us to get an opportunity to choose, because they are afraid our choice will not be the same as theirs.


Freedom of Choice as long as it coincides with my choice


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To quote DEVO:

Freedom of choice

Is what you got

Freedom from choice

Is what you want

(sorry, couldn’t resist)


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I’m not really sorry, I don’t like McDonald’s food very much (except for those little hot fudge sundaes), something like Orcutt Burger would be a better fit. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, some kind of coffee shop so I don’t have to drive to Morro Bay just to eat.


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Food, folks, and fat. Oh wait, that’s KFC.


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The McDonalds operation would have been an extremely poor fit for the Los Osos community; the property itself was never designed for the type of high traffic use a fast food place like this would normally generate, and as noted before, there are severe water issue considerations. I applaud the citizens for taking a stand which caused the elected officials (the Board of Supervisors) to issue the restrictions on operating hours.

And for those of you making noise about this being a viable “food choice” for the area, please, really? Viable? More like, barely passable. Not really going to be missed, is my opinion.


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“poor fit” ? Only in your naysayer anti-McDonald’s eyes, Bob FSL.


The property is analogous to MBay where the McD and Burger King both operate and smoothly flow cars at the benefit of employees and community with no traffic problems. The Miners/Rite Aid anchor tenants leave tons of parking available; the parking is underutilized and PERFECT for the fast food model.


Water issue considerations were addressed by required plumbing retrofits, The only “water” thing wrong with the proposal was a jerkwater Board of Supervisors and concomitant naysayers and nannies, like you Bob. Your side won, Bob, to the loss of jobs, late night food availability, and modernization of the Los Osos 1950’s civic model. A pity IMHO.


I encourage OTHER outlets to give it a try. The majority of Osoans will HOPEFULLY leap on the BOS to make it MORE operating hours workable, and Los Osos can have some fast food and shift management jobs.


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A part of the reason that McDonalds and Burger King work so well in Morro Bay is the number of tourists that flow through the area. Los Osos does not have that same amount of traffic, either people who are traveling on a north/south route, a south/north route, or coming over from the valley; a huge number of people traveling in these manners expect to find fast food operations available to them in most areas and actively seek them out, which makes for the situations in Morro Bay work so well and have the traffic flow so “smoothly”.


Los Osos has none of that; there isn’t the high number of tourists flowing through the area, there isn’t already an established fast food mentality that creates that demand, and the idea that a huge number of people in Los Osos would support a franchise like this so that it could operate in a profitable manner is an equation that the people who proposed the idea finally crunched the numbers and realized it wasn’t going to work.


The plumbing retrofits would really not have made that much of a reduction on the level of water intensive uses a fast food operation would require, especially when compared to the operation of a bank that was formally in the same space. I strongly disagree that the water issue was fully addressed.


As for the jobs from a fast food franchise; if more than one person (the manager) earned a “head of household” wage, you might have an argument for your case. Realistically, most of the jobs are going to be very close to minimum wage only.


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Bob your first paragraph about tourist flow, and second paragraph about fast food mentality is/are hogwash. McDonald’s is a huge planetary success due to customer demand. The town would have stampeded to it. You appear to even think you can cast the “mentality” of most in Los Osos. Boy you truly are an articulate NIMBY socialist social engineer liberal, my friend. And incorrect, as well.


Your hit on the success of water retrofits is flat ass contrary to study and measurement of such extensive steps, Draconian as they were.


Give it up, Bob. You WON through attrition and government restrictions; don’t try to rationalize away the public demand and desire for food and employment options which your ilk has managed to frustrate.


The town will be back, holstered cheeseburgers at the ready, for another vendor counting on a less blockhead Board of Supervisors.


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Los Osos’ answer to most everything is a resounding NO. As a result the community is what it is today, what it was yesterday, and what it will be tomorrow. Sad.


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LOL – So true!


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One of the partners in the Madonna Road unit told me they were having specific problems retrofitting enough homes to “offset” the water usage, in the hundreds. I encouraged him to be strident and meet the ridiculous limitations, such as hours of operation. Human stomachs are hungry 24/7.


So, crappy job BOS and all you NIMBY’s, you EXCLUDED a valid food choice for Los Osos. A victory for NIMBY’s, and we all get to drive past a bank building empty for almost ten years. Good job, NIMBY’s and Los Osos Loons! Why don’t you SHUT DOWN Miner’s behind the empty bank? They stock and vend paints and solvents and evil thinners there!


Kevin Rice said it best down below, >> We don’t want you (businesses) here.


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The usage of the word “recently” is a huge stretch …. McDonald’s on Foothill has been closed for at least 8+ years….


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Businesses: Don’t waste your money in SLO county! We don’t want you here.


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What’s next?


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