The Louisiana-based chicken chain has submitted permit applications for sites in Rohnert Park and Napa — but the Napa filing is specifically engineered to avoid the public hearing process that killed an earlier proposal.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers has submitted permit applications for two North Bay locations — one in Rohnert Park and one in Napa — advancing a Bay Area expansion that now reaches from Hayward to wine country.

In Rohnert Park, the Louisiana-based chain signed a lease in March 2026 for the former Amy's Drive Thru site at 58 Golf Course Drive W., according to the Press Democrat. A permit application was submitted to the city in June 2026 and is listed as "under review" in Rohnert Park's development activity tracker; no staff report, site plans, or Planning Commission agenda have been posted publicly. The company did not respond to a request for comment, per the SF Chronicle. A September 2027 opening is projected.

The Napa application is the more instructive filing. Raising Cane's has applied to renovate the former KFC building at 295 Soscol Ave, South Napa Marketplace, and the project is undergoing Administrative Design Review — a staff-level process that requires no public hearing, no Planning Commission vote, and no City Council approval. Napa's Acting Planning Manager Michael Allen confirmed to the Press Democrat that the lower review tier applies precisely because the project retains the existing drive-thru footprint, vehicle access, and circulation: "Since they are taking over an existing drive-thru, no additional permits or approvals are required, unless an expansion of the drive-thru is proposed."

That detail carries specific weight. In 2021, the Napa City Council voted 3-1 to deny a separate Raising Cane's drive-thru proposal at Soscol Square Shopping Center, citing greenhouse gas emissions from idling vehicles; one council member, Mary Luros, recused herself because her law firm had previously represented the developer. The current Napa application is structured specifically to avoid triggering a comparable public process. A spring 2027 opening is projected; the location will be corporate-owned and is expected to employ 75 to 95 workers, per the Napa Valley Register.

The chain already operates in Fairfield, Vacaville, Colma, Hayward, Oakland, and San Jose, and has applications pending at San Francisco's Stonestown Galleria and Fisherman's Wharf, per the SF Chronicle. Neither the Rohnert Park nor the Napa application has disclosed project costs or finalized site plans in publicly available records as of this writing.