By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The town of Moapa may soon be home to a new Starbucks coffee location.
In a meeting held Tuesday, April 9, the Moapa Town Advisory Board approved a design review for a restaurant shell building to be constructed on Lewis Ranch Road on the adjacent parcel to the south of the existing Terrible Herbst gas station and convenience store.
The building is expected to be occupied by a new Starbucks franchise owned and operated by the Terrible Herbst company.
The plans showed a 2,845 sq ft one-story building with a 520 sq ft outdoor patio seating area.
In addition, the item also proposed an additional diesel fuel canopy to be built on the site, just east of the existing fuel canopy, which would be associated with the convenience store to accommodate additional trucking customers.
“We believe the development of this site will allow greater access to food and beverage options for more business to the surrounding area,” said Brian Bietsch who was representing the developer at the meeting.
Two access sites were proposed into the new coffee shop parcel. The first was the existing driveway into the convenience store, which would have open access to the south into the coffee shop parking lot. The second would be a newly paved Rhine Ave. running east off of Lewis Ranch Road, adjacent to the site on the south.
The company was requesting a waiver to required offsite improvements on Rhine Road which would include curbs, gutters and sidewalks.
But MTAB members expressed concern about floodwater drainage in the area if curbs and gutters were not required.
“I believe that there should be off-site improvements for drainage control,” said MTAB member Cally Wade. “The drainage can be pretty terrible through there. So I don’t know if we need to require full sidewalks and everything, but at least curb and gutter.”
Another requested waiver dealt with landscaping. The applicant was asking to not include a certain landscaped island which would normally be required in the parking lot in favor of additional parking. Expecting a healthy traffic flow through the business, the applicant was seeking to offer about 15 percent more parking than the minimum required in the code.
MTAB member Blake Stratton asked how much traffic was expected. Bietsch responded that the plans were preparing for a healthy customer base at the location; specifically in its drive-thru arrangement.
The plans showed a Y-lane split drive-thru accommodating a queue of up to 15 vehicles. Customarily, Starbucks locations have enough drive thru capacity to handle a queue of only about 7-10 cars, he said.
“They’re expecting it to be pretty busy,” Bietsch said. “That is why they are trying to keep that parking count as high as possible and providing that additional drive-thru stack, because they foresee a lot of the traffic in the drive thru.
One other requested waiver was in regards to the new sidewalk in front of the parcel along Lewis Ranch Road. The code requires a detached sidewalk with a landscaped buffer between traffic and the sidewalk. But the existing sidewalk in front of Terrible Herbst does not follow that requirement. The applicant was requesting that the new sidewalk match what is existing.
In the end, Wade made a motion to approve the request with the condition that the developer include curb and gutter on the newly paved Rhine Road.
The board adopted the motion with a unanimous vote.
