A closely-watched zoning proposal before the St. Paul City Council would ban all future restaurant drive-throughs citywide, while creating new rules limiting pharmacy and bank drive-throughs near public transit stations, among other regulations.

The proposal had pit the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, some advocates for the disabled and individual franchise owners against proponents of greater pedestrian access and walkability, but it also raised questions with council members.

At a time of growing commercial vacancies in key parts of the city, and during a tough time for small businesses citywide, why add a new layer of regulations?

Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, who represents a large swathe of the East Side bordering suburbs where drive-throughs are busy and plentiful, said her constituents had asked her, “What makes this the most pressing thing to do? … How pertinent is this to our city right now? I’m not sure.”

Pause until 2025

Those arguments were not lost on Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who following a public hearing on Wednesday, asked the city council to delay a vote on the zoning changes until September 2025. The long pause, she said, will allow time for a long-planned economic study of the city’s business corridors, which would likely include some review of drive-throughs.

Noecker’s proposal for a year-long delay was approved 6-1, with Council President Mitra Jalali opposed. Jalali noted that the zoning proposal had gone through close scrutiny by the St. Paul Planning Commission, and “if too much time passes, there’s a risk of that information becoming outdated,” she said. “I want to take this up in a timely way.”

Noecker acknowledged that the proposed zoning changes included potentially helpful design changes around car lanes, or “stacking.” Still, at a “tough time” for many St. Paul businesses, she said the city should be “making it easier for business owners to invest in their properties, rather than doing the reverse.”

“Pedestrian safety, that’s really aligned with my values … but at the same time we’re always trying to balance multiple competing needs,” she added. Drive-throughs “does not seem to be something I hear is a big problem from my constituents.”

Council appears to support drive-throughs

Most council members signaled an interest in seeing drive-throughs continue.

Council Member Nelsie Yang noted some teens working in sit-down fast food franchises in the city have had the unfortunate experience of having to call paramedics for customers who had overdosed in the bathroom. That’s led some franchise owners to move to drive-through and counter service, with no sit-down options.

A worker hands and order to a customer as cars line up to pick up lunch orders from the McDonald’s on University Ave. and Marion. St. in St. Paul on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Council Member Anika Bowie noted that without drive-throughs, parents would have to take their kids out of the car in order to get food and drinks.

Other business advocates raised the likelihood that rather than inspire more sit-down eateries, blocking franchises from establishing drive-throughs would simply disinvite them from moving into the city at all, leaving more vacant storefronts and dark corners — a potential detriment to public safety.

A representative of the St. Paul Chamber noted recent media reports about “pharmacy deserts” across the state, a problem that could be exacerbated, and pointed out that rather than lower auto emissions, consumers will use a smart phone app to order delivery or simply drive farther. Problem drive-throughs could be addressed through a more targeted look, on a case-by-case basis, he said.

“We have some customers who might have medical needs,” said Courtney Henry, who operates a series of McDonald’s restaurants throughout St. Paul, in a written statement read aloud to the city council by his business representative. He encouraged further amendments to the zoning proposal, allowing existing drive-through owners to create environmental and technology improvements to their drive-throughs.

Jalali said that in her political ward, “the nuisance of drive-throughs is unfortunately a daily problem” over which the city has few regulatory tools, in part because University Avenue is a county road and Snelling Avenue is a trunk highway.

The “pedestrian experience on each of those is miserable in too many places,” said Jalali, pointing to a former drive-through Starbucks near Snelling and Selby avenues, and at a Taco Bell closer to Snelling and University avenues. “I look forward to the day when we can take this up with renewed focus.”

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