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The highly anticipated In-N-Out development was met with some hesitation by Eureka City Council during last night’s meeting. Specifically, the council was not convinced that the city should allocated $450,000 from the general fund to pay for a traffic signal on the corner of the proposed location at Vigo and Broadway.

“We want this project to be completed,” Eureka City Council member Austin Allison told the Outpost today. “But we have some reservations about forking over all that money.”

The Carrington Company, developer of the project, submitted their plans for 2616 Broadway in October. The plans included two buildings — one that would house In-N-Out, and another that would hold four business. Following the CEQA analysis, city staff determined that a traffic signal would be necessary to accommodate this project.

But later, after city staff determined that the traffic signal would be required, the Carrington Company indicated that it did not have the budget to pay for it, and would have to abandon the project if asked to cover the costs.

With an estimated $60,000 in annual revenue from project, city staff recommended last night that the council provide the $450,000. But the council did not feel comfortable with this arrangement and felt that the developers should provide at least some of the funding for the traffic signal.

The council directed staff to further negotiate with the developers and scheduled a special meeting to discuss the results next week.

Eureka Public Works Director Brian Gerving told the Outpost that another another possible option discussed was establishing a “revenue guarantee” with the developers, which means they would make up the cost to the city if the $60,000-a-year threshold wasn’t met every year.

On another exciting note: Gerving also announced that Chipotle is an applicant for the project. It seems the rumor that LoCO posted a few months ago (but was unable to verify) is true! To further add to this excitement, apparently this Chipotle would be one of the first ever on the west coast to include a drive-thru. Wow!

The special meeting city council meeting on the project is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday Nov. 14 at 5 p.m, but that may be subject to change. When confirmed, the agenda will be posted here.