Here\u2019s what we know: In-N-Out at Keizer Station will be opening soon. Beyond that, all bets are off.<\/p>\n
Expect the fan-favorite burger chain to announce the location\u2019s official opening about 48 hours before the day it happens, at least that\u2019s what has happened elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Expect there to be people \u201ccamping\u201d in the vicinity of the building at some point shortly after the announcement is made.<\/p>\n
Expect there to be long waits for your first, or next, double-double animal style. When the chain opened its Medford location \u2013 Oregon\u2019s first In-N-Out \u2013 there were projected waits of up to four hours. It didn\u2019t matter whether one was in line at the counter or drive-thru.<\/p>\n
Expect there to be increased traffic. There are no forecasts for how much additional traffic might arrive in Keizer, but there are at least four viable Interstate 5 exits that drivers could use to access Keizer Station. All but Exit 260 could lead drivers through Keizer on their way to In-N-Out. News of In-N-Out coming to Keizer has been covered all over the state and as far north as Seattle. As soon as the doors open, the Keizer location becomes the closest In-N-Out to Portland, Bend, Seattle, most of the Oregon coast and every other town with California transplants in-between.<\/p>\n
Expect the traffic impacts to last for weeks, especially as the holiday shopping season unfurls and all those trips to the Woodburn Factory Stores begin to include side trips to In-N-Out. The city manager in Medford said it was more than a couple of weeks before things settled down.<\/p>\n
Or, maybe, just maybe, expect all this prognostication will turn into a big, fat \u201cnothing burger.\u201d When a second Oregon In-N-Out opened in Grants Pass \u2013 40 minutes north of Medford in 2017 \u2013 plans were made for apocalyptic traffic impacts and everything was smooth sailing prompting the editor of the Grants Pass Daily Courier <\/em>to call for\u00a0a round of double-doubles for the traffic planning team.<\/p>\n Keizertimes<\/em> talked with local leaders about their plans for the opening and city managers in Medford and Grants Pass about their experiences with an In-N-Out opening in their towns.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been in discussions with In-N-Out for months now regarding traffic upon their opening.\u00a0We are going to allow them to take the lead on traffic control because they have a lot of experience surrounding the topic,\u201d said Chris Eppley, Keizer city manager.<\/p>\n Eppley said the city will have resources standing by to help, but \u201crealistically, our resources will be overwhelmed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n In the previous Oregon openings, private security personnel were hired to help direct traffic in the area around the locations. While there are numerous areas in Keizer Station where In-N-Out traffic could stack and pull cars off streets, it remains to be seen how many other shopping center tenants will be willing to part with those spaces in the run-up to Christmas.<\/p>\n Eppley said Keizer Station has some capacity to absorb burger-lovers, but that it is possible traffic will spill over to Interstate 5. The highway is the jurisdiction of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). ODOT isn\u2019t making any special plans for the opening, said Lou Torres, an ODOT spokesperson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe In-N-Out location is a good one-half mile from the I-5 Chemawa Interchange.\u00a0It is hard to believe that folks will want to wait in a queue that long for a hamburger,\u201d Torres said. \u201cHowever, ODOT is not planning to do anything special regarding the opening.\u201d<\/p>\n Cherriots also plans to monitor traffic as the restaurant opens. If logjams occur, there might be impacts to bus traffic passing through the Keizer Station transit center.<\/p>\n \u201cIf traffic starts to impede Cherriots routes, we will detour buses around Keizer Station,\u201d said Allan Pollack, Cherriots general manger.<\/p>\n On weekdays, detours may affect Route 11 – Lancaster\/Verda, Route 12 – Hayesville Drive, and Route 14 – Windsor Island Road. On Saturdays, Route 11 – Lancaster\/Verda and Route 19 – Broadway\/River Road may be affected. Riders should visit Cherriots.org\/alerts for the latest updates on any detours or stop closures in Keizer Station.<\/p>\n Brian Sjothun, current Medford city manager, was overseeing the city\u2019s parks at the time In-N-Out opened and said the company brings in its A-team for the first couple of weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were a really valuable resource to have as far as training their employees but also for handling general operations and traffic issues,\u201d Sjothun said. \u201cI think the car stacking in the parking lot of the mall was brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n For Medford, the opening of an In-N-Out paid off in other ways as well. Because the chain prides itself on the freshness of its ingredients, it opened up a small distribution center in the city to serve other locations in the region.<\/p>\n In Grants Pass, City Manager Aaron Cubic said plans developed by In-N-Out that included some additional help from the city\u2019s public safety department went off without a hitch. There also wasn\u2019t a traffic impact that lasted weeks as it did in Medford.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring this same time, we had a number of new businesses and building retrofits in this same area and do not have any data that separates out In-N-Out impact,\u201d Cubic said. \u201cWe have certainly seen a rise in our tourism stats, though I cannot contribute them to In-N-Out at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in Medford, Sjothun said most locals waited a few weeks before venturing into the joint, but admitted \u201cthe experience is kind of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s what we know: In-N-Out at Keizer Station will be opening soon. Beyond that, all bets are off. Expect the fan-favorite burger chain to announce the location\u2019s official opening about 48 hours before the day it happens, at least that\u2019s what has happened elsewhere. Expect there to be people \u201ccamping\u201d in the vicinity of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erichowald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}