SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane City Council approved a year-long ban on new drive-thru businesses along the city’s busiest traffic corridors.
The proposed moratorium was added to the council’s agenda as an emergency ordinance last Friday. The ban passed with a 5-2 vote at Monday’s City Council meeting. It takes effect immediately.
City planners say they want a one-year pause to figure out the safest way to zone the land near bus stations before a new drive-thru changes the landscape. It’s part of a bigger push to make high-density corridors safer for people to walk, bike and use public transit.
“People want a city where that’s more vibrant, that has more accessibility to walk and bike and get around the city,” said Zack Zappone, who represents District 3 on the Spokane City Council.
The affected areas include a large portion of Division Street, as well as parts of Hamilton and Monroe streets. For years, the city council has been discussing adding more places to live along Division and closer to transit.
The Spokane Transit Authority plans to start construction on new bus stops along Division in 2028 as part of their bus rapid transit program. That’s why city planners want to take a “time out” on new drive-thrus, gas stations and coffee stands that could impact the traffic-scape and safety of the corridor for generations.
“If we don’t pause it now, then we could be stuck with the results. And trying to retrofit a city is a lot harder than trying to plan out for the future,” Zappone said.
Spencer Gardner, director of planning services, said the city wishes it could have acted sooner.
“If we could go back six months and avoid those incompatibilities that are, you know, vested from six months ago, that would be great. But we don’t live in that reality. So today is the day that we felt like, let’s bring something forward and address this,” Gardner said.
The draft moratorium only applies to new drive-thrus. Existing drive-thru businesses would not be affected by the proposed ban.
Zappone emphasized that the ban is not permanent and is focused on specific areas.
“It’s not saying that there’s going to be a ban on drive-thrus forever. There’s other places in the city that they can still continue to be. This really focuses specifically on high transit corridors,” he said.
Some planned drive-thrus are safe from this proposed ban as well. The Chick-fil-A on Mission and Ruby has already obtained the necessary permits needed to proceed.
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