In-N-Out wants a 65-foot freeway sign

In-N-Out Burger has appealed the Costa Mesa Planning Commission’s decision to allow the company to put a restaurant with a drive-through at the site of the vacant Kaplan’s Deli building at Harbor Boulevard and Gisler Avenue because of restrictions the commission placed on the proposed restaurant.

In its proposal, the California burger chain asked for a 65-foot freeway sign (double the size of the one there now) and asked not to be held responsible for the landscaping and maintenance of a strip of land between the 405 Freeway off ramp and the restaurant — both requests the commission denied earlier this month.

“As much as I like In-N-Out, I don’t want to subject the city to what amounts to a 65-foot billboard at the entrance to the city,” commission Chairman Jim Righeimer said.

Several residents also told the commission that they enjoy the restaurant’s burgers but think the proposed location would cause severe traffic backups due to cars turning into the restaurant from its entrance on Harbor Boulevard (the city’s main traffic artery) and trailing out into the street.

In-N-Out management likes the deal, but said it wants the large sign and that there are too many variables involved with the commission’s request to improve and maintain the landscaping on Caltrans-controlled land between the freeway off-ramp and the restaurant.

“We really want to be there. We really like the site,” said Carl Van Fleet, executive vice president of Planning and Development.

The company hopes to “get some clarity” from the City Council on June 16, when the council takes up the issue, Van Fleet said.

Commissioner Steve Mensinger said he has done developments where he has formed agreements with Caltrans to maintain land in Costa Mesa and they aren’t as difficult as In-N-Out is making them out to be.

He and Righeimer stressed that it was part of their responsibility to the city to make its entrance look nice.

The proposed In-N-Out in Costa Mesa would be in the middle of a metropolitan area, not on an empty stretch of freeway, making the sign unnecessary and out of place, Righeimer said.