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  • City of Lone Tree
  • City of Lone Tree

LONE TREE, Colo. — In-N-Out Burger, the wildly popular and cult favorite chain known for its double-doubles and animal-style fries, gained approval Tuesday night to open a restaurant in Lone Tree by late 2020.

The Lone Tree City Council voted 5-0 to approve construction of a 3,867-square-foot restaurant at 9171 Westview Road, just northwest of Park Meadows.

The Irvine, California-based chain announced in November 2017 that it would bring its animal-style burgers, fries and shakes — and long lines — to Colorado.

In documents the company submitted to the city of Lone Tree, it said the restaurant could be the first one of three to open in the state.

The chain will build a drive-thru lane capable of holding 26 vehicles as huge interest in the fresh and never-frozen food is expected. It would be Colorado’s longest fast-food drive-thru lane.

A condition of Tuesday’s approval is that In-N-Out would have to develop a traffic management plan and share it with the Lone Tree Police Department and the Lone Tree Public Works Department during the initial opening of the restaurant.

In-N-Out is building a nearly 100,000-square-foot distribution center and a 150,000-square-foot office building. in Colorado Springs.

The distribution center and offices will be built in the Victory Ridge mixed-use project on the north side of Colorado Springs.

A 4,800-square-foot restaurant will be built at the corner of InterQuest and Voyager parkways and open sometime in 2020.

The burger chain also plans to open a restaurant at 1700 S. College Ave. in Fort Collins, but no date has been announced.

When In-N-Out announced it was coming to Colorado, it was reported the distribution center could serve up to 50 restaurants within 350 miles of Colorado Springs so more restaurants are expected.

In-N-Out started in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 and has nearly 350 restaurants in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Oregon.

It’s menu consists of a hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double (two patties with two slices of cheese), french fries, drinks, shakes, milk and coffee, but there are also several off-menu items available, including animal style burgers and fries.

A reason for a long-awaited expansion into Colorado is because In-N-Out did not have a distribution center nearby.

In-N-Out delivers food fresh daily to its restaurants instead of freezing it, making it fresher and more popular. In turn, its legion of fans swarm the restaurants, especially when they open in new markets.

When the first restaurants opened in Texas in 2011, there were long lines of people waiting to get their hands on the burgers.