San Diego Mayor Filner asks Jack to stop rebuilding Box.

On Friday San Diego mayor Bob Filner stated that the Jack in the Box restaurant remodel in North Park is in violation of the permit acquired for it. He has requested that the City Attorney order work halted.

San Diego’s Development Services Department agrees with the mayor. They report that two of the exterior walls of the existing building have been partly destroyed in the demolition process. This violates the terms of the permit for the refurbishing of the fast food restaurant located at 2959 Upas Street.

As a result of the demolishing of exterior, load-bearing walls, Filner believes the locally-headquartered corporation has effectively destroyed the current restaurant. The original request for a permit asked that the old building be completely replaced by a new edifice. This request was denied by San Diego’s Planning Commission.

In addition, the mayor believes because of the taking down of the outside walls, Jack in the Box forfeited the drive-through portion of its operation there. The old building, closed this past May and due to reopen in late summer, has been at its location prior to the current zoning laws were established prohibiting any drive-throughs. The Mayor Filner states that now that the integrity of the old building has been destroyed, the resulting restaurant should be considered a new building, and thus, subject to the now-existing zoning rules. That would make the drive-through, which Jack in the Box hopes to retain, illegal.

The chairman of the North Park Planning Committee is Robert Barry. He notes that his committee unanimously rejected the demolition of the previous restaurant and a complete rebuilding. At that point, Jack in the Box forwarded a new plan directly to the city’s Development Services. This new plan was not mandated to be approved by North Park Planning.

However, by going beyond the terms of the permit, the city claims Jack in the Box is circumventing the planning process, and seeking to keep the banned drive-through function, while erecting a new building.