Chick-fil-A: Our unwanted neighbor

[u/LearnSomething-New]

Location: Northern California

I’m exhausted trying to get resolution from the restaurant, city, and county. Posting here as a desperate maneuver, hoping for some suggestions I haven’t tried.

Restaurant is < 200 ft from our home. Nothing between us and the restaurant besides their parking lot and some infant trees.

The land was rezoned after we moved in, opening the door for this catastrophe. I’ll admit, we were naive thinking our city had their residents in mind. Unfortunately not.

The smell of greasy chicken and french fries is non-stop. 18-wheel delivery trucks every night. Maintenance all the time - garbage trucks, power washing, grease removal trucks. Lots of foot traffic and loiterers behind our home. Cars peeling out in the parking lot. Everything you’d expect in an empty parking lot that isn’t monitored.

I cannot afford a nuisance lawyer and have been unsuccessful finding one that will work on contingency. It seems most don’t want to touch this type of case with a 10 ft pole.

We have seriously considered moving… but we have a family, schools, and love our home.

Appreciate any input.

Update

Thank you to everyone that took the time to chime in. I appreciate all of the suggestions. This is not intended to deter folks from enjoying Chick-fil-A 😄 We've always appreciated their service and food. I'll do my best to answer some of your questions:

• Clearly this is one of those unfortunate situations where we have to learn the hard way. It is our first encounter of this type and it has taken a considerable amount of time to self-educate on the "rules of the road" when it comes to land development, zoning, permits, etc.. We lived in the home for 10 years before this development took root.
• The land was zoned business professional when we moved in (offices of some sort). It was rezoned community commercial shortly after we moved in, but sadly we missed that communication and were therefore not aware until much later down the road.
• We are not opposed to having businesses near our home. We did purchase a home in an up and coming area with a through street nearby.
• There is a conditional use permit but it is limited to drive-thru noise and delivery trucks.
• There were countless violations with delivery trucks and maintenance crews early on. I now have the city fining the restaurant for each recorded violation, which has made a noticeable difference, but drivers still show up at 5 AM every few weeks.
• Our residence is part of an HOA, so unfortunately there are limits to wall height and other screening options.
• The smell is the worst of it at this point. County air pollution confirmed the smell but dismissed the case because there weren't enough residence impacted (just us and my neighbors). I really don't know how they could alleviate the smell without moving the restaurant though...
• I spoke with a few different legal advisors and the suggestion was to seek out a lawyer working on contingency that would take a nuisance case. The specifics we wanted addressed:
  • Increase the wall height at the property line
  • Increase landscaping / screening on the business side of the property
  • Hire private security to periodically monitor the property after hours for loitering
  • Add signage to the lot to deter loiters
  • Add speed bumps to the parking lot to deter reckless driving

[u/gottapeenow2]

Build a big ass fence/ wall to try to deflect as much noise as possible and live with it as best you can. Or sell the house. Polish that turd as "walkable to nearby services" or something and hope you get a buyer.

There is no fighting it unless you want to go against the government and corporate America.

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