🚘 A drive-thru Coralville

While city staff is against it, an applicant is making the case for allowing a drive-thru near the city's center.

October 27, 2020 | Letter No. 16

Coralville’s Town Center District—which runs along Highway 6 from 18th Avenue to 6th Avenue—includes everything from the Coralville Public Library to the New Pioneer Food Co-op. Just north of the center, between the highway and Interstate 80, there’s a sprawling grid of green tree-lined housing that pupils an elementary and middle school.

As the district name and presence of City Hall suggests, this is Coralville’s civic center, a mid-point between its two large commercial districts at both interstate exits. If those districts—with their malls, hotels, and new arena—point out-of-town, this district points toward residents of Coralville.

While it was dropped from the agenda at the last minute, there is an application making its way through City Hall trying to allow a drive-thru near the city’s center. While its true that elsewhere along Highway 6 Coralville has drive-thrus (looking at you Dunkin’), they are not allowed in this central district.

Applicant Adam Brantman applied for three properties at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 6th Street—a busy corner by any measure. He said they’ve courted and even developed a site plan for quick-service restaurants, but city staff hadn’t allowed it to move forward since drive-thrus weren’t permitted.

“It is no secret the difficulties facing retail and commercial real estate space limited to walk-in traffic. That lack of demand has only been made worse with the recent pandemic,” Brantman wrote. “At the same time, the demand for drive through uses has never been higher and looks to continue to be for many years to come.”

[Above: The applicant’s properties are roughly outlined above and include 705 2nd Ave., 705 1/2 2nd Ave., 605 2nd Ave., 306 6th St.]

Brantman cited an article from objectively the best publication I subscribe to: QSR—short for Quick Serve Restaurant—a trade magazine that luminaries like BK and Arby’s send their press releases for publication. The article makes the case that table-top restaurants are doing poorly, much more poorly than those with counter-service and drive-thrus. 74 percent of people have visited the drive-thru the same amount or more often than usual since COVID-19 landed. A 43% leap from April, according to a report they cite. Companies like Chipotle opened 37 new restaurants in 2020’s Q2. 21 of those had a drive-thru lane, a “Chipotlane” (Are you getting the appeal of this publication?).

Brantman pointed out that the properties have long been vacant and said it wouldn’t be suitable for the mixed-use that is permitted there due to parking concerns.

David Johnson, the community development director for Coralville, said in a memo to council that the amendment would “undermine” the district and the 25 years that went into what’s there since the district plan’s passage in 1995. Quick-service restaurants, he argued, “happen in isolation, are not pedestrian oriented, do not contribute to the district’s sense of place and identity.” Pursuing singular, low-density developments was at odds with plan itself.

“Redevelopment plans are not implemented in short time [sic]. It takes time and discipline to transform areas. In that time, development opportunities will present themselves. It is imperative local government support community planning efforts and do not sacrifice long-term goals of the community for short term, isolated opportunities,” the analysis read.

In addition, Coralville’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denying the application with a 5-2 vote at its Oct. 7, 2020 meeting.

It’s no surprise that the redesign of this core area is jealously guarded by city staff. But it’s worth taking beat and seeing how the city choosing to wait on the right project based on the guidance of the plan versus the project that could get any development on a slab of concrete that remains an eyesore in town.

Your friendly neighborhood reporter,

Zachary Oren Smith

Also from my notebook

Urban Chicken Ordinance - Coralville City Council had the second of three readings on an ordinance that would allow single-family households in town to keep up to six chickens. Permits will cost residents $25 annually. Applicants must own the land or have permission from their landlord. Slaughtering chickens will be allowed out of view. Applicants will need to have completed a chicken raising class and have proof of completion.

Take 5

🗃️ Pat Garrett, the Iowa governor’s mouthpiece, told a public information officer not to honor an open records request. No surprise here, but his lawyers admitted it happened “on at least one occasion,“ Stephen Gruber-Miller reported in the Register. Randy Evans of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council wrote in Iowa Watch, “someone might conclude the governor has decided to avoid embarrassing newspaper articles and TV reports by disregarding her office’s obligations under the public records law.”

🗳️ As of Monday, 50% of Johnson County's registered voters have already voted. Thus far, 33,216 registered Democrats have returned early ballots (overseas/military, in-person, mailing, or satellite); 6,336 Republicans have returned ballots. This participation far overshoots 2018 early voting rates and brings Democrats pretty close to the kinds of Johnson County margin they had for Fred Hubble in 2018. I put together this guide for people with questions as we get closer to the big day.

💉 Pretty comprehensive write up of our IA-02 candidates and their stance on ACA and how to approach COVID-19, Perry Beeman writes in Iowa Capital Dispatch. This is a signature issue of this race and for our voters. It’s worth reading everything you can on this issue.

🧑‍🎤 I’m sure you, like me, have wondered if Elizabeth Warren and Phoebe Bridgers knew the “Time Warp.” Jack Black, the frontman of Tenacious D, told voters it’s just a “jump to the left.”

📰 While Lee Enterprises has avoided much of the sting for the saw it took to its newspapers in small and mid-sized cities, Gwen Floro, the former editor of Lee’s Missoulian newspaper, wrote about the company’s merciless treatment of papers like the Missoulian for The Nation. Warning: this warrants a stiff drink in hand.

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Zachary Oren Smith writes about government, growth and development for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach him at zsmith@press-citizen.com, at 319 -339-7354 or on Twitter via @Zacharyos.