BEAVERTON, Ore. — In-N-Out Burger's plan to open a Beaverton restaurant hit a roadblock this week.
The Oregonian/OregonLive was first to report that the California burger chain's application for a restaurant at 10565 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy was denied Monday by Washington County's land use hearings officer Tim Turner.
Turner denied the application after a public hearing that included comments from the applicant, county workers and the community.
Although a summary of the decision included community concerns about the restaurant causing traffic problems in the area, the application was ultimately rejected because In-N-Out failed to meet land use requirements.
The newspaper reported that the site In-N-Out wanted to develop is divided into two sections with different zoning codes — a commercial business district, where a drive-thru is permitted to operate, and an office commercial district, where a drive-thru isn't allowed.
Even though the business would be located in the commercial business district, Turner concluded that its drive-thru would have to use office commercial-zoned portions of the site for "excess drive-thru vehicle storage."
For those who don't know, In-N-Out Burger is known to have very long drive-thru lines.
In-N-Out reportedly has 21 days to appeal the decision. A spokesperson for Washington County told The Oregonian the company has not filed a notice of intent to move forward with the appeals process.
The company has had its eye on some other sites in the Portland metro area in the past couple of years.
In 2021, the company submitted a land-use application for a site in Hillsboro and purchased a property near Bridgeport Village in Tualatin for $3.3 million.
In-N-Out Burger currently has three Oregon restaurants — one along Interstate 5 in Keizer, near Salem, and two other two locations southern Oregon, in Medford and Grants Pass.
The chain had been discussing the possibility of a Beaverton location since 2020.
