Drive-through ideas?

[ssc]

I have the opportunity to recommend conditions on a proposed drive-through fast food restaurant, but am coming up blank. I really do want to minimize the impact of this use on traffic and aethestics, but it is in an established commercial zone. We already have required # of waiting spaces (6 from the order board). What are some of the best restrictions put on drive-throughs out there? I'd really appreciate any thoughts. Screening around drive-through lane? Limits on hours of operation?

Thanks!

 

[Budgie]

Screening with a vegetative component is usually a good idea especially when abutting residentially zoned areas. on-site pedestrian ways that consist of parking islands and clearly marked pavement helps as well.

 

[boiker]

Screening with a vegetative component is usually a good idea especially when abutting residentially zoned areas. on-site pedestrian ways that consist of parking islands and clearly marked pavement helps as well.

Building on Budgie's comment, a permanent, no maintenance solution to marking pedestrian ways is brick walkways. Traffic should notice the color and texture change more readily than yellow striping. In my experience, traffic and pedestrians treat yellow striping as a "suggestion" of a walkway.

Work on beefing up screening with landscaping around the parking lot perimeters to hide the parking areas and partially hide the parked cars.

Require the freestanding sign to be an architecturally compatible ground sign that is well integrated into the front yard landscaping and site.

Hide the drive-through menu board from the main flow of road traffic.

Hopefully these help.

 

[Plannerbabs]

Some of the newer reader boards for drive-thrus also have really bright digital components, which should be screened. Hard to regulate/enforce, but volume can also be an issue. And, if there's room, there should be an option to pull away from the line, or a bypass lane. So many drive-thrus have concrete curbs from the entry point until past the menu board, or farther, so once you get in line, you're stuck. A rolled curb or different paving texture, or an opening in the screening at a point where headlights won't intrude on residential districts, helps a lot. Sometimes you get in line and wait for ten minutes, and realize you just really don't want those jalepeno poppers....

 

[Chet]

Previsouly I've recommended if near resolidential areas:

1) restricting volume on outdoor "squawk boxes". In one instance we even required face-to-face ordering, eliminating the box all together, and re-spacing the order and pick up windows

2) limiting hours of operation (ever hear the cacaphony of a Taco Bell at bar close?)

3) six stacking doesnt seem enough to me. I counted 9 at one place yesterday

4) require parking after the pickup window for the 'wait-ers', to allow the line to keep moving and reduce stacking needs

5) control illumination

6) have sufficient post-pick u pstacking for vehicles waiting to egress, if the abutting roadway is heavily travelled

 

[ssc]

Thanks!

Thanks for all the ideas. I put together what I felt was a thoughful analysis of the proposal with suggestions for the planning board and ... they ignored them all and approved the site plan.

Ah well... What's one more Wendy's?

But now I can't decide if I am more ineffective as a consultant or a municipal planner.

 

[Wulf9]

I'll have a junior bacon cheeseburger, a chili, and a frosty.

 

[mgk920]

Thanks for all the ideas. I put together what I felt was a thoughful analysis of the proposal with suggestions for the planning board and ... they ignored them all and approved the site plan.

Ah well... What's one more Wendy's?

But now I can't decide if I am more ineffective as a consultant or a municipal planner.

Whaahwawaa screechheeech that bzzzzzchhhechh happens eeeerrrrraaacchh....

One factor, too, that can come into play here is a desire by the owner/lessor to keep things somewhat 'open' and visible for security purposes. From my experiences, McD's drive-throughs are pretty good in that regard. If I were a manager, I would not want to have employees work a drive-through where it is a single lane pushed back up to a long rear lot line that is screened off from adjacent residential, sort of like a tunnel, like is on a fast-food place not far from where I live.

Mike

 

[Dan]

Time to bring out my "I've already thought of it!" zoning code.

Okay ... scattered around the code.

310.8 Drive through facility

310.8.2 Definition
Drive through facility -- element of a business where goods or services are passed through exterior windows or mechanical devices to patrons in queued motor vehicles.

310.8.3 Permitted locations
Drive through facilities are permitted by right as an accessory use to restaurants and banks only (not to drug stores, dry cleaners, liquor stores or other types of businesses) in the C-G district.

404.7.2 Vehicle related uses
The following uses are prohibited ≤150’ (46 m) from a residential district.
Mechanical commercial uses, as defined in §201.
Drive through aisles.

Wing walls, landscape screens, changes in building orientation, and/or other architectural elements must be used to buffer such uses when they are 150’ (46 m) to 300’ (92 m) from a residential district.

406.6.1 Drive through aisles

Stacking lanes for drive through aisles must be ≥100’ (31 m) long measured along the centerline to the first window, ATM screen, pneumatic tube door or car wash code entry panel, with ≥40’ (13 m) from the origin to the order board, if applicable. Drive through aisle turning radii must be ≥50’ (16 m).

Drive through lanes must be physically separated from parking and circulation areas, and must not interfere with the on-site parking and circulation for other vehicles on the site, nor result in traffic queuing into a drive aisle or street.