The city defines fast-food restaurants as those that sell food to eat there or to take out and have a limited menu, items prepared in advance or heated quickly, no table orders and disposable wrapping or containers.
"Part of the debate is even what is fast food, and it's a tricky thing," said city planner Gay. "Everybody has an impression, but when you try to write an ordinance, you have to be very legalistic about it."
Industry opposition
The restaurant industry opposes such ordinances, in part because it's hard to define fast food, and although Perry's proposal allows for exceptions to the ban, some say that's not enough.
Restricting new restaurants to full-service, sit-down spots is "like saying we're not going to allow anybody to sell Chevrolets anymore because we want people to buy nothing but Mercedes-Benzes," consultant Lombardi said. "It's convoluted logic. If the objective is to get full-service, upscale casual dining restaurants in an area, I think the first step is finding out why they're not coming in an area, then start addressing those, and start by incentivizing."
The city already offers such incentives in South L.A., including speedier permit processing, Perry said.
And there's no way to ensure one result: getting people to change their eating habits.
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tami.abdollah@latimes.com
Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.
