Raising a Whopper of a Protest : Fast food: Residents’ opposition to drive-up windows stalls plans to sell family-run restaurant to Burger King.

BURBANK —  For 12 years, Juicy Harvey’s has been serving up burgers, gyros and shakes to an appreciative clientele of studio employees and “Tonight Show” devotees. Then owner Arman Pezeski announced plans to sell his family-run eatery to Burger King, and the neighborhood gagged.

“I thought Burger King would be a good thing for the people here,” Pezeski said. “I have a small business. But Burger King was going to put money into the property, and I thought some of the kids around here could get jobs.”

What Pezeski didn’t anticipate was a resistance to drive-up windows so great that a neighborhood petition drive prompted the city to impose a temporary moratorium on them and undertake a review of possible standards, including a minimum number of parking spaces for waiting cars.

On Tuesday night, the City Council is expected to hold a public hearing on the issue, inviting residents and merchants to voice their views on whether the window ban should continue. Under current municipal codes, Burger King does not need council approval to buy Juicy Harvey’s, but plans for the sale have been halted because of opposition.

“It’s not fair,” Pezeski said. “The city wants to make an example out of me. I am just a small-business owner who is trying to sell his business.”

Juicy Harvey’s, a local landmark at the corner of Alameda Avenue and Ontario Street, already has a drive-up window with room for three cars to line up for service. But neighbors say a Burger King would be too popular and drive-through customers would spill over into the narrow alley that bisects their two-block area.

“Juicy Harvey’s takes up a minimum of spaces right now,” said resident Charles A. Moses. “But if a major fast-food chain comes in, it will change the whole neighborhood.”

Moses said neighbors are worried that if Burger King buys the property, it will attempt to purchase nearby duplexes and raze them to expand Juicy Harvey’s small lot.

For other neighbors, it is the uncertainty that makes them oppose the Burger King takeover.

“I don’t know what will happen if Burger King comes to the neighborhood. It could be more noise, kids hanging around, or whatever,” said Ruth Ortiz, who lives behind Juicy Harvey’s. “But once it comes here, there will be no control for us.”

City officials emphasize that they are not targeting Pezeski with the moratorium, but trying to address a larger problem in the city.

“It’s a citywide problem,” Councilman Ted McConkey said. “It was not some action aimed at them.”

McConkey said a number of fast-food chains in the city have caused problems because of the popularity of their drive-up windows. He said the Juicy Harvey issue just happened at a time when the city decided to address it.

“We recently had a McDonald’s open at the busiest intersection in the city, and they didn’t have enough room for the cars that were lining up for the drive-up window,” McConkey said. “But we didn’t find out until the permits were already granted.”

This isn’t the first time the area’s residents have been outraged at the possibility of a popular fast-food restaurant in their neighborhood.

Last year, Jack-in-the-Box considered taking over Juicy Harvey’s and planned to buy and demolish two homes next to the site to expand the parking lot, according to a city report.

But residents resisted and expressed their concerns about traffic and noise at a public hearing before the city Planning Board. Those plans were abandoned.

McConkey said there is a way to avoid a fight with the city.

“Burger King could come in right now and get a permit if they would drop the drive-up window,” he said.