I dislike Chick-fil-A.
I dislike their terrible bastardization of the English language, I loathe their CEO's politics, and I find the food vile. Nonetheless, blaming the restaurant for the traffic snarl on State Street — as most of Santa Barbara seems to be doing — is disingenuous in the extreme.
I am bemused that basic logic is not obtaining here: The restaurant was given permission to operate under certain codes; the restaurant is operating within the bounds of those codes; and the parties that signed off on this are not being held accountable in the least. If the planning department wants to mitigate the potential for traffic jams, the planning department should perform due diligence and authorize proposals accordingly.