Who would have thought that Mountain View could become mired in the current Chick-fil-a controversy.
Chicken chain restaurant President and CEO Dan Cathy said in the Baptist Press recently that the company supports "the biblical definition of the family unit." According to an investigation by LGBT advocacy organization Equality Matters, Chick-fil-a spent upward of $2 millionin 2010.
This has caused certain large city mayors to initially declare that they would prevent Chick-fil-a from opening up in their cities.
It turns out that, Chick-fil-a wants to, and has been approved, to lease the lot where the Sizzler had been located on El Camino Real near Clark Avenue.
But the controversy in Mountain View is not about what Cathy said--it's about whether or not a drive-through should be allowed, reported the Mountain View Voice.
Mountain View Mayor Mike Kasperzak left the following comment on his Facebook page on Saturday:
As you might expect, we are getting a lot of mail about the Chick-fil-a that wants to open a new drive-thru restaurant on El Camino. The national media has not really reported what is happening in Mountain View, but has focused on what three big City Mayors have said. Today the Chicago and Boston Mayors acknowledged that they really don't have the power to prevent a Chick-fil-a in their towns, despite their prior comments.
As for Mountain View, Chick-fil-a has been issued a conditional use permit (CUP), but this decision has been appealed in accordance with our zoning code. Because of the appeal, all the parties are entitled to their Constitutional Rights of Due Process, which means a fair, objective and unbiased public hearing. In other words, the City Council can't prejudge the matter or comment on how they will act. More importantly, under the law, the Council may only consider matters related to the zoning issues being appealed (principally whether a drive-thru should be permitted), not the beliefs or statements of the company or its owners.
The Council has not made any decisions on this issue and will not do so until later this fall.
Around the nation however, the Chick-fil-a controversary has begun to galvanize opponents of marriage equality. In Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stopped by an Austin Chick-fil-a during one of his campaign events, as did former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin who's thrown her support for conservative rival Ted Cruz, reports ABC News.
A Chick-fil-a appreciation day has been announced for Aug. 1 nationwide.
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