Starbucks Iced by Anti-Chain Measure

San Francisco deployed new anti-chain-store regulations to block Starbucks from opening its 81st outlet in city yesterday. Acting on an appeal by local merchants,  supervisors found that the planning commission hadn't followed guidelines, voted in last fall, that make it tougher for chain stores to expand in the city, the Chronicle reports.

Proposition G, passed last fall, requires special consideration of the neighborhood character and the number of chains already in the area. The outlet, which was to be connected to a Toyota service center, was the second Starbucks to fall to anti-chain sentiment in SF: in 2003 one was deemed, under an earlier law, "inappropriate" for the Sunset district. (More San Francisco stories.)