Along Main Street in the city of Ramona, at San Diego's geographical center, there's a controversy spilling over about the large lighted bucket outside the town's Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
At a recent meeting of the Ramona Design Review Board, it was noted that the illuminated KFC bucket is not down-shielded, violating the area's dark sky policy. According to the city's policy, all lights must be down-shielded to avoid lights impacting astrononmical research at the Palomar Observator to the north.
KFC's bucket doesn't meet the policy, according to the Ramona Sentinel. Board chair Carole Wylie said that the town has notified KFC to either fix the problem or remove the sign.
The owner of the building leased by KFC, Ches Bushey, said the restaurant reported a 10 to 15 percent drop in business when the bucket went dark for a few weeks, the paper reported.
“Our requirements aren’t conditional as to whether they’re selling so much product,” Wylie said at the meeting.
Another board member, Chris Anderson, said that the KFC's $100,000 remodeling project had been altered after it had been presented to the board, pointing out that there were other elements that had also not been approved.
