While much of the 315 West Ponce de Leon Avenue property has changed quite dramatically over the last couple of years, the one holdout has been the Wells Fargo drive-thru that’s long-remained on the eastern elevation of the property, due to a long-standing lease.
Now it sounds like Redstone, the property’s current owner is looking to swap out the banking drive-thru and ATM with a new concept.
A drive-thru juice bar.
On the agenda for the Decatur Planning Commission this month, a request from Redstone for “an exception to the special pedestrian area” to build a drive-thru juice bar in place of the Wells Fargo drive-thru.
Redstone’s note to the Planning Commission states that they plan to reduce the number of drive-thru lanes from four to just the one closest to the building to accommodate the new business. In exchange for removing three of the four drive-thru lanes, Redstone is requesting 9 new angled parking spaces fronting Ponce de Leon Place.
Redstone’s note to the commission states that the parking space would be buffered by “newly installed landscaping between the sidewalk and asphalt area.”
The proposed plan is going before the Planning Commission because Decatur’s special pedestrian area regulations do not permit parking between a building and the street or “drive through facilities” within the Special Pedestrian Zone, which includes this stretch of Ponce Place. However, the commission can grant an exception after a public hearing, in consideration of the following standards:
1. The suitability of the proposed exception in view of the use and development of adjacent and nearby property.
2. The effect that the proposed exception will have on the existing use or usability of adjacent or nearby property.
3. The impact that the proposed development will have on the public safety, traffic on the public streets, transportation facilities, utilities and other public services.
4. The impact that the proposed development will have on established property values and on the health, safety, comfort and general welfare of the residents of the city.
5. The economic or marketing impact that these guidelines may have on the property owner or developer.
Photos and plan images courtesy of the Decatur Planning Commission agenda materials packet
Will they be able to send juice drinks flying through vacuum tubes? That would be awesome.
Ha! Thanks for the afternoon chuckle.
+1
Every time I hear of this plan, I picture the juice being delivered via the tubes … thanks to you, Steve …
Oh sure, give credit to the +1 guy.
Intrigued. What kind of “juice” are we licensed for? 🙂
If this were posted two days from now, I’d swear it was an April Fools joke. It would be a great skit on Portlandia at any rate.
Yeah, I don’t even know how to respond to this as something serious.
My thoughts exactly! Maybe we need to start our own show: “That’s So Decatur”.
Totally. I say give them credit for creativity and knowing their audience!
That sound you hear is the owners of the forthcoming Kale Me Crazy face palming.
Daiquiris, please.
Can we please get a like button?
Would this be part of the Smoothie King that’s already going in? And then, let us not forget (pun intended) that Kale Me Crazy is going in across the street. Or will there be THREE juice/smoothie bars within steps (or, well, drives) of one another?
It’s the new froyo craze. Once there were three, now there is one.
Seems like drive through coffee would be much better business- but I bet harder to get approved due to traffic generation. I wonder if the juice gets approved, how long it will be until the business switches from juice to coffee?
If this is remotely true, it’s ridiculous. It basically says, “Sure, we’ll let you do that because we think you’ll be unsuccessful!”
I have no idea if this is true or not. But I would bet that driving counts and timing of the traffic would be different for a juice place vs coffee. The lower traffic count numbers don’t have to mean a juice shop couldn’t be a viable business- it is just the community impact that might differ.
Perhaps less glamorously but more importantly, inside those agenda materials are the plans to subdivide the Oakhurst dog park and develop half of it into two new homes.
” I wonder if the juice gets approved, how long it will be until the business switches from juice to coffee?”
You just made a very good argument for a “No” vote on this request.
Puhleez…a drive thru bank is bad enough. Downtown is about walking and a good pedestrian environment without sidewalks being laced with driveway cuts for cars. Take those drive-thrus to exurbia where cars dominate. If this is approved, Decatur has lost its soul.
Allowing drive-through should cut down on need for more parking. Pick your poison.
Allowing drive-through should cut down on need for more parking. Pick your poison.
Allowing drive-through should cut down on need for more parking. Pick your poison.
Except they’re asking for more parking, not less.
…Says the person who has clearly never attempted to obtain goods or services with two infants/toddlers strapped in the car.
you know the kind of tactics this smoothie war will lead to don’t you: bikini wearing window personnel, pre-legislative approval medicinal doses in your “Glaucoma Fixerupper” smoothie . . .
you know it, i know it, and you know i know you know i know it.
I am really disappointed by this … My husband and I use that Wells Fargo drive-thru ATM. I love the walkability of Decatur, but sometimes conducting business out of the car is really appreciated, especially with little ones in tow.
If only it were going to be a restaurant where I could pick up a delicious, healthy dinner in route from daycare pickup to home. I could spare patrons from our rowdiness.
I could go for that too! I never thought that a drive-thru was a good thing until I had a toddler to get in and out of the car! And I am about to have another one…. I need that drive-thru space to either a place to get money or dinner, cold-pressed juice will not suffice!
Consider this the ultimate motivation to kick Wells Fargo — the Comcast of financial institutions — to the curb. We abandoned them last year for the Delta Community Credit Union and have never looked back (though, like you, we have small children and the lack of drive-through access can be a PITA).
Delta is great.
How interesting … I actually just opened an account at Wells Fargo after about 15 years as an exclusive credit union user and I have been amazed at how much better the service is at the bank.
I’ve never had a problem with WF in ten years. But I almost never have to go into a branch and when I need some cash I get cash back at CVS or Kroger.
I should add that some of those ten years were with Wachovia before WF bought them out. Still, been more than satisfied with WF.
Oh, we loved Wachovia. But WF is nothing like Wachovia. They had fees for everything (including moving money from one of our accounts with them to another).
Does anybody else remember that when this development was proposed that it was stated that they must build on the previously existing greenspace opposed to building where the drive through was because they did not own that space, it was owned with a 30 year lease by WF. Well now they built on that green space, it seems they now own the drive through. It really bothers me that builders withhold information for their profit at our expense. I wonder if the inspired greenspace will include a 50 year oak like the last greenspace?
The Frogurt is also cursed.
Point of clarification. This conversion to a juice bar drive – through is being proposed by the owners of the office building, not the new construction folks.
There are reasons why drive-through facilities are not permitted in the special pedestrian zone. If the most compelling reason for the exception is to make life easier for people with toddlers, then I hope the City thinks long and hard before granting it. Toddlerhood lasts a very short time–is it really reasonable to design infrastructure around it that creates real external costs to the community? (Yes, I’m still a little bitter about the McKoy Park pool.)
“If the most compelling reason for the exception is to make life easier for people with toddlers,then I hope the City thinks long and hard before granting it. Toddlerhood lasts a very short time–is it really reasonable to design infrastructure around it that creates real external costs to the community? ”
+100000. As a downtown resident, I will go to this meeting and object strongly to making exceptions for convenience’s sake, or because of claims that a juice bar won’t attract much traffic. For some of the people who are in favor of this, I wonder how they feel about people driving through their neighborhood’s to avoid the inconvenience of traffic? Downtown is no longer just a commercial zone; that’s why these regulations were put into place. There’s a McDonalds and a Chick-fil-a with drive-thrus and wide selections of beverages and food. There is no compelling reason to add to that.
I’m not advocating for more drive-thrus , I’m just saying that the one that is there is infinitely more useful as a bank than a juice bar.
“I’m just saying that the one that is there is infinitely more useful as a bank than a juice bar.”
That’s fine. I respect the concept of “grandfathering”, with the idea being that the undesirable (and no longer code-compliant) feature may go away in the future of its own accord. But that concept is undermined when exceptions to the rules are made and those features are allowed to be re-purposed.
I prefer the idea of this being a ridiculous April Fool’s joke.
Decatur has become a parody of yuppieness, so a drive-thru juice bar that replaces a needed bank must be reality.
We have plenty of juice at home. After losing the ATM at Publix, we really use this ATM since we don’t have $20’s at home otherwise.
Enjoyed the April Fools joke. Right??? Or am I going to have to drive to Toco Hills for $20’s now (trying to avoid the parking garage ATM that my husband won’t go to.) Any others nearby other than the one at QT?
I think the ATM that was at Emory Commons Publix is now across the street in the parking lot of the shopping center where Rainbow Foods is located. By parking garage ATM, do you mean the one across from Decatur First UMC? Yeah, that one is a pain unless you are at church…