The Naperville City Council wants more information on traffic management plans for the Dutch Bros drive-thru coffee shop proposed for a site near Naper Boulevard and 75th Street before deciding whether to approve it.
Since its origins as a pushcart coffee operation in Grants Pass, Oregon, in 1992, Dutch Bros now has more than 1,000 locations across the country and a devoted following. There are stores in central and southern Illinois but none in the Chicago area, meaning Naperville could be among the first.
Over the next year, Dutch Bros plans to open about 35 locations in the Chicago market, with hopes of having multiple shops in Naperville in the near future.
“We’re not wanting (the Naperville store) to be a destination,” Cody Herbster, director of real estate for Dutch Bros, said. “Our model is not to draw from 20 to 30 miles. We want to draw local community and local community having a two-mile radius.”
Plans submitted for the Naperville location call for a 1,179-square-foot building with drive-thru lanes and a walk-up window. They have the support of neighboring businesses, including Jewel-Osco and US Bank, but the city’s Planning and Zoning commissioners were split on whether to recommend council approval when the project went before them in August.
At the Tuesday council meeting, Dutch Bros representatives tried to assure council members that the company has a sound traffic plan to avoid backups, like those being experienced at 7 Brew
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, a similar drive-thru-only coffee business off Ogden Avenue. That includes utilizing mobile ordering and “line busters” — employees with iPads who complete orders before customers reach the drive-thru window.Dutch Bros also plans to send additional staff members to help with the traffic that’s anticipated during the grand opening and to ensure that employees are able to manage the flow of vehicles. The company may also hire off-duty police officers to help direct cars.
“We think this site is actually best suited for this,” said Gino Galluzzo, an attorney representing the developer. “It’s probably the best site as anywhere out there for something like this because it will never back up to the city streets.”
However, council members were leery, expressing concerns over everything from the feasibility of hiring off-duty police officers to whether customers could safely queue and exit the shopping center after receiving their order.
“I do think it’s a difficult decision to be honest, based on what we’re seeing and based on just this one site on its own,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said. “It’s a busy intersection, a busy shopping center, and this would make it much busier, and that’s a concern.”
The recent traffic problems at 7 Brew have only compounded the concerns.
“One of the challenges that we face with 7 Brew, is … it feels like the city’s hands have been tied, and really fixing it there just hasn’t been that much we can do,” Kelly said.
Since opening last year, 7 Brew has seen long lines that spill out onto Iroquois Avenue and even wrap around to Naperville-Wheaton Road, causing major traffic issues for the area. As the first location to open in the Chicago area, the store has consistently drawn customers from 10 to 30 miles away.
“Every one of us has researched your company and seen some of those stories about locations that you’ve had across the country that have had significant traffic issues and in some cases, fights with the city and store closures,” Mayor Scott Wehrli told Dutch Bros representatives. “This isn’t necessarily just about your competitor up the street on the north side of Naperville.”
Wehrli emphasized that approving Dutch Bros would mean “doing something in our city that we’ve never done before,” citing the requested remote control, corralled parking to help queue traffic for the drive-thru.
“That’s why we’re riding this so hard, because we don’t want to have a significant issue in an area that is one of our north-south arterials in our community,” he said. “It is extremely important to us to maintain those traffic controls.”
Instead of voting on the issue, the council tabled the matter to allow the developer time to present a more refined traffic plan.
“I think I would lean towards supporting a new business in town, supporting a property owner being able to develop the property, as long as we can iron out any of these concerns that staff has,” Councilman Josh McBroom said.
The proposal will return to the council on Nov. 4.