Acre Pizza owner Steve DeCosse couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the bright orange sign on Sebastopol’s main drag last month.
“There it was,” he said. “Little Caesars. How the hell did that happen?”
DeCosse isn’t the only Sebastopol business owner or resident asking how a chain business — defined by the city as a store or restaurant with 25 or more locations nationwide — ended up in downtown Sebastopol, where such retail outlets have been banned since 2018.
LIttle Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain in the world, with restaurants in every U.S. state and 27 countries and territories.
The Sebastopol store is co-owned by Modesto-based brothers Gurdip Singh and Harcanb Khehara, who also own Little Caesars shops in Rohnert Park, Windsor and Santa Rosa. Singh said they had hoped to open the Sebastopol location by Halloween but received pushback from the city after it was discovered the brothers received the administrative approval for their restaurant in error.
According to Interim City Manager Mary Gourley, the approval was “an oversight on city staff’s part.”
An Oct. 22 news bulletin on the city’s website notes that city administration was “made aware” of the use permit after residents saw a Little Caesars sign hanging from a building on Petaluma Avenue.
“Upon review, the city … acknowledges that administrative approvals occurred in error during the processing and issuance of permits related to the Little Caesars project,” the bulletin reads. “Due to this error, permits were issued for a business that may not have otherwise been approved for this location under current zoning regulations.”
Under an administrative approval — a process used to ensure the site use conforms with zoning standards — no conditions can be attached to the permit. The approval is granted by city staff and is not reviewed by the Planning Commission or City Council.
Neither the bulletin nor Gourley identified who made the errors, but both noted that the city is unable to revoke the permit. That’s given Singh the go-ahead, and he plans to open the pizzeria next week.
The Press Democrat has filed a request with the city seeking public records related to the application and approval.
Council member Neysa Hinton, the longest-serving incumbent, who was on the council when the original ordinance was passed, said she was surprised that the Little Caesars approval was an issue at all.
She was under the impression that property, site of several other chain businesses, could grandfather in others. Peet’s Coffee was a tenant in the early 2020s.
“But we were told that ‘no, restaurants don’t count,’” Hinton said.
Voicing confidence in the city’s formula business ordinance, Hinton said she does not fear the error would cause a cascade of new chain businesses in downtown.
“Hey, we made a mistake and we’ll own it,” she said.
Less than two months ago, the council strengthened Sebastopol’s formula business ordinance, which was established in 2018 when city leaders banned nearly all chain retail shops in the downtown core. During that time, hundreds of citizens attended dozens of contentious public hearings regarding the issue and the city settled a costly lawsuit that attempted to block the CVS and Chase Bank project on the corner of Petaluma and Sebastopol avenues — also the location of the forthcoming Little Caesars. The ban prohibits businesses, including lodging, restaurants or first-floor offices with 25 or more establishments nationwide occupying a storefront in Sebastopol’s downtown.
The purpose of the ban, city leaders said at the time, was to sustain a mix of locally owned businesses and allow them to compete with less brick-and-mortar pressure from national chains.
Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.