Aurora’s Sonic to stay open until midnight
Hey, night owls!
The Sonic;http://www.sonicdrivein.com/home.jsp drive-in at 2974 Kirk Road in Aurora gained the city council’s permission to stay open until midnight instead of 11 p.m., but only by a 7-5 vote.
Concerns about extra noise in a nearby neighborhood or worries other businesses near Kirk and Butterfield roads would ask for later hours led aldermen Abby Schuler, John “Whitey” Peters, Mike Saville, Scheketa Hart-Burns and Lynda Elmore to vote against the one-hour extension of the restaurant’s hours.
Seven aldermen, including Stephanie Kifowit, voted to approve the one-hour extension, allowing Sonic to stay open from 6 a.m. until midnight as promised in national advertising.
For Kifowit, the ‘yes’ vote was about being business-friendly.
“It sends a negative message to other businesses if we can’t work with one entity on one hour,” Kifowit said.
But for Schuler, the ‘no’ vote was about staying true to the agreement made before Sonic opened in August 2008.
“Extending the hours peels back the layers of the original agreement to preserve the quality of the neighborhood,” said Schuler, who represents the northeast Aurora ward where Sonic is located.
Before casting her ‘no’ vote, Hart-Burns asked whether neighbors opposed an extra hour of business for the drive-in.
“There have been some neighbors that have voiced opposition to this,” said Bill Wiet, Aurora’s development director.
But city staff members took their time studying whether to recommend the midnight closing time to the city council. For 18 months, staff members studied traffic, noise and police issues related to the restaurant and found nothing that made them fear negative consequences of Sonic staying open an hour later, Wiet said.
Peters said he thought letting Sonic stay open until midnight was “pushing the envelope.” But Alderman Rick Lawrence and a slim majority of the council, decided an extra hour was acceptable.
“They were asking for something reasonable to follow their national chain,” Lawrence said.