06 - Boards & Commissions - Minutes

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spaces to accommodate the building. He continues to inform the board that there will be nine parking spaces in the drive through to make up for the lacking spaces in the surrounding parking lot. Chairperson RuthAnn Alsobrook asks if the structure is going to be temporary or permanent to which Mr. Jones replies that it will be a permanent building on a concrete foundation. Mr. Jones continues to tell the board that Scooter's is currently built across 20 states in the southern region and they are currently working on building 30 new locations across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. David Hamilton, board member, asks if they are comfortable with the traffic flow that is going to be created by development is going to be handled by the way they have it designed to which Mr. Jones responds that he is. Mr. Jones explains that the Scooter's concept in general requires 6 to 7 parking ques in the drive through and for this location they designed it with 9 to 10 spaces, so he is comfortable that it will be able to accommodate the area. Mr. Jones continues to tell the board that they design a variety of business from as small as Scooter's to as big as Amazon so they are accustomed to seeing a variety of parking needs and designs. Lastly, Mr. Jones explains that though Scooter's is frequently compared to Starbucks that tends to remain very busy and always has a long drive through line the difference in concept and customer interaction is different and designed to be more efficient. Larry Walker, board member, mentions the similar coffee chain on Collegiate that frequently has 15 to 20 cars in line that spills out into the street; his concern is how close the building is to one of the main entrances to the parking lot being blocked by the cars and if 10 spaces will be enough to prevent that. Mr. Jones then explains that the difference is similar to Popeye's and Chick-fil-a in the fact that the operations of the business are different. Mr. Jones also mentions that this will be a much smaller volume since there is no inside access for customers and the concept is made to be efficient to reduce the wait in the drive through. Lastly, Mr. Jones states that if there is ever an issue of not having enough ques in the drive through that Scooter's would quickly be looking into building another location to accommodate the high demand; though that is not frequently necessary for this chain. Andrew Mack responds to the previous questions by informing the board that concept was presented to and reviewed by TXDot and they did not express any concerns. Specifically with the question of there being enough stacking in the drive through there was no concerns since the concept is more streamline and efficient. In addition, Scooter's has provided double the minimum 5 stacking spaces required by the City. Lastly, Mack states that if there is an initial wave of traffic due to interest in a new business additional staffing will be provided to help direct the traffic. RuthAnn Alsobrook made note of citizen input forms submitted by mail as follows: Carol Olson, of 130 NE 42' Street, in opposition. Stated that it would add excessive traffic to an already high traffic area.