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Land Use: Rural Drive-Thru Approval

The Challenge

Acton, California is a small, rural community in unincorporated Los Angeles County, nestled just

north of the Angeles Forest. It also happened to have a major Freeway—CA-14—bisecting it as

commuters headed back and forth from the Antelope Valley.


Primo Burger, an Antelope-Valley based family-owned restaurant, had joined in 2014 with the owners of Acton’s Country Club Feed Store to open a new restaurant with a drive-thru on land owned by Country Club Feed.


In nearly 25 years though, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors had not approved a new drive-through restaurant since that Jack-in-the-Box. Failed efforts by Taco Bell in November of 2015 also complicated Primo’s efforts.


Passantino Andersen was hired by Primo Burger and Country Club Feed Store in January of 2016 to help them successfully navigate towards an approval for a drive-through at the LA County Board of Supervisors.


Key Activities


Support Letter Collection – Utilized the connections of property owner Country Club Feed to immediately begin a robust, yet under-the-radar, support letter collection program to start out with a strong show of community support. By the final hearing, nearly 500 support letters were submitted.
 

Open House – Unlike previous attempts by national retail chains to come into Acton, Primo

attempted to reach residents directly about their efforts. This included a “community open house”

to invite residents both pro and con out to have their questions answered.
 

Direct Mailer Program – Designed an 11” x 17” mailer sent to every household in Acton, that

shared the positives of the project, and efforts that were made to have Primo Burger appeal to the

community. The mailer also had a postage-paid supporter card tear-off that gave us a 7% return.
 

Public Meeting Turnout – Even with nearly 500 support letters, we organized for a strong turnout

of supporters at the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors hearing, with a 2-1 showing of supporters to

opponents.


Winning Results

On June 6th, 2016, the L.A. County Supervisors voted to approve Primo’s Drive-Thru on appeal, and

Primo became the first restaurant to have a drive-through approved in Acton in nearly 25 years—

despite opposition from the Acton Town Council.


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