HomeMy WebLinkAbout26A Drive Through Restaurants Memorandum
CITY OF PALM DESERT
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT
CITY COUNCIL ACTION ITEM MEMORANDUM
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
Todd Hileman, City Manager
Robert Hargreaves, City Attorney
From: Eric Ceja, Interim Director of Development Services
Date: May 13, 2021
Subject: Request for direction regarding drive-through restaurants
Staff has discussed our report with interested drive-through developers and feel it
necessary to provide clarification to the language listed under the “Development Standards”
discussion. The first two bullet points under Development Standards are:
1. “Drive through restaurants are not permitted to front either Highway 111, Monterey
Avenue, or Fred Waring Drive.”
2. “Drive –through restaurants are permitted only within the interior of shopping
centers, as long as they are not fronting a public street and are at least screened by
another building or significant landscape buffer.”
The two above bullet points are in conflict: one says drive-through restaurants cannot front
certain public streets, and the other is ambiguous if drive-through restaurants can front
public streets with a significant landscape buffer.
It is staff’s intent to have drive-through facilities completely screened from major corridors
as a means to lessen their visual impact on the community. Staff believes this can be
achieved with a “significant” landscape buffer inclusive of mounding, screen walls,
shrubbery and trees, inorganic material, and other landscape or pedestrian features and
amenities. Therefore, staff is clarifying that drive-through restaurants could located along
major corridors so long as their visibility is minimized through the use of a significant
landscape buffer.