Roseville Planning Commission Supports Drive-through for Coffee Shop

The Roseville Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to support J. Arthur’s Coffee Shop request to add drive-through service. 

The drive-through would have an entrance from Transit Avenue and exit either onto Rice street or County B2. The commission decided that the location, 2441 Rice St., was suitable for a drive through despite a resident’s concern that more traffic to the area would be untenable.

“School buses line up on Transit Street, and the kids wait to get on, little kindergarteners,” said Mary, a resident of the nearby Woodbridge Street. “We’re trying to keep the area nice and quiet and clean, and it’s going downhill.”

The coffee shop, mostly used by staff and residents of ACR Homes Inc., hopes to add local commuters to its customer base.

ACR Homes  provides residential support services for people with physical and developmental disabilities. ACR Homes, which owns the building, plans to operate the drive through for morning commuters and possibly through 8 pm for the evening commute.

“The shop is open to the public and fully licensed,” said Paul Nelson from ACR Homes. “It’s just not highly advertised. We mostly provide services for people with disabilities, meetings and trainings for staff.” 

The main concern by the resident, and planning commissioners was the impact that the coffee shop drive-through traffic might have on the neighborhood. Currently, traffic in the area is already heavy and the intersection of Transit and Rice is often congested.

“It seems that it’s a trade-off between if [the drive-through] drawing new traffic onto Transit or drawing people who would turn left on Rice through to B2,” said commission member Michael J. Boguszewski.

Though Mary suggested ARC allow drivers to cut through its parking lot to get to B2 as a trade-off for allowing the window, the Commission dismissed the idea.

“I’m sure if you got a cup of coffee they’d be glad to have you through,” said Commission Chairman Daniel Boerigter.

The Commission's unamiomus vote to support the coffee shop drive-through came as City Planner Thomas Paschke recommended approval of it. The commission's recommendation will now go to the Roseville City Council, which will decide whether or not to aprove J. Arthur's  request.

“Seventy five to 80 percent of the traffic is already there,” Paschke said. “Sign lighting and speaker volume are easily controlled and monitored, the magnitude would need to be very high for there to be a problem with the window. The traffic problem, however, is already there and not going away.”