Sisters is wading into a discussion of how chain restaurants ought to be regulated and has set a Thursday town hall meeting to consider the topic.

Sisters senior planner Eric Porter said the issue emerged when the city received an inquiry about opening a Cibelli’s.

The Bend-based pizza chain, with six locations in Bend, Redmond and Corvallis, was approached by an investor who wanted to establish a Cibelli’s location in Sisters, according to Cibelli’s president and CEO Bret Bateman.

Bateman said the investor approached Sisters independent of Cibelli’s, but when founder Frank Cibelli learned the code would make it very difficult to open a new restaurant, he was “appalled.” Bateman said Cibelli’s isn’t comparable to a large national or international chain.

“We’re not a board of directors or on the stock market. We— the owners — are in the pizza shops making sure the pizzas are being cooked correctly,” Bateman said.

Chains are not banned outright in Sisters. And there are no restrictions on such businesses in the immediate downtown area, Porter said. The city’s restrictions on drive-through windows and requirement that new construction match the city’s Western theme likely has deterred some fast-food chains.

At either end of the city along U.S. Highway 20, establishments selling “formula food” — defined in city code as to refer to eating or drinking establishments that include three or more locations that share a largely standardized name, menu or appearance — are subject to spacing requirements, which creates only three to four sites where a new establishment would be permitted, Porter said.

The only two national chains with locations in Sisters are Subway and McDonald’s. Sisters also has a Dutch Bros., a Grants Pass-based coffee chain that has expanded across much of the West.

Porter said the episode involving Cibelli’s sparked city officials to take a closer look at their code. Issues under consideration include exemptions for chains based in Central Oregon, a cap on the total number of formula food establishments allowed in the highway commercial zoning areas at the ends of the city or an adjustment in the number of locations a restaurant has before it’s regarded as formula food.

Beyond Cibelli’s, several Central Oregon-based restaurants currently have two or more locations, and would be subject to the formula-food regulations if they attempted to open a location in Sisters.

Porter said the city may also want to consider if fast-food restaurants should be considered the same as sit-down establishments. El Caporal, a Mexican restaurant with locations in Bend, Tumalo and Sunriver, once had a location in Sisters, Porter said. Were the company to try to reopen in Sisters, it would be subject to the same formula food restrictions.

Porter said chain restaurants have long been a controversial subject in Sisters, and he’s hoping for a good turnout at the town hall meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.

“It’s difficult in a town hall meeting to really get clear direction but it’s helpful for us, because if there is a demand for a certain change, we’ll hear it,” he said.

Bateman said though Cibelli’s is not currently attempting to locate a restaurant in Sisters, he’s hopeful the code will be able to accommodate them if the right opportunity emerges. The difference between a chain and a local business isn’t just about the number of locations, he said.

“I really think it’s attitude, whether you have one shop or 20 shops. What’s your attitude? Do you really care about your customers and your product? Or is it just about the bottom line?” he said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com