RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - It’s no secret that people love Dutch Bros Coffee. At any given moment, lines for the popular drive-thru coffee chain extend several cars deep. The Rancho Cordova City Council loves Dutch Bros too. They just don’t want it at the location the business is proposing due to concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.

Dutch Bros’ possible entrance into the city was the most contentious topic at the Monday, April 19 Council Meeting where members were presented with information from city staff as well as representatives from the Dutch Bros development team who would like to build a drive-thru at the corner of Zinfandel Drive and Folsom Boulevard in what is currently a part of the Grocery Outlet parking lot. The location is near the Light Rail Station.

Nicholas Sosa from the Planning Department (who was also accompanied by Public Works’ Albert Stricker) presented a number of plans and mockups showing a hybrid Dutch Bros attempting to cater to both drive-thru customers as well as pedestrians and cyclists. In their eyes, the latter would be able to relax and sip their beverages with friends and loved ones in a cozy, landscaped patio area. Conscious a drive-thru would increase traffic for an already heavily traveled and chaotic area, it was noted Dutch Bros would pay in some capacity for any modifications to improve traffic flow.

If the following discussion could be summarized as a type of coffee, it would be black… very black.

Referring to past comments councilmembers had given the Dutch Bros development team, Vice Mayor Donald Terry said in his 13 years as a public servant he was amazed how they had so blatantly not heeded their earlier guidance and said he “couldn’t sleep with himself” supporting the endeavor. In what would be echoed by the other councilmembers, he called the location too “car-centric” with the needs and safety of pedestrians “tagged on”. The only way he felt he could approve a Dutch Bros - a business he admires - in the proposed location was if the drive-thru was taken out.

Accessibility, lack of connectivity to other businesses, the fact Dutch Bros would become the fifth drive-thru in the area were issues Councilmember David Sander had with the proposed plans. He also felt they didn’t encourage at all a community patio environment. In fact, Councilmember Sander had trouble exactly pinpointing the patio amongst the drawings.

Councilmember Siri Pulipati noted the buzz Dutch Bros endears amongst people and joked, “the youth of the city will throw me out” if she didn’t support it coming to Rancho Cordova but also asked why Dutch Bros wasn’t looking at other locations.

Mayor Garrett Gatewood told the Dutch Bros development team he “will fight for you in other locations” but stated it was not the right location for safety reasons.

Public Comment was also negative with one participant referring to “suicide lane”.

Councilmember Budge showed only a slightly less negative view of the location from the others when she said the “unused, ugly parking lot” needed something to promote activity.

The Dutch Brothers development team tried to paint a brighter picture of the situation expressing their desire for compromise although the location didn’t appear to be one of them or taking out the drive-thru aspect for that matter. A representative from Property Nine Development said to look at the energy put into the plans as “passion” by those involved and not as disappointment - a callback to Vice Mayor Terry’s words.

With little light at the end of the tunnel for now, the Dutch Bros plan was given back to staff and the development team to address the many concerns raised and present again at a future date.

The bulk of the rest of the meeting was taken up by reviewing staff recommendations for the Community Enhancement Fund (CEF) - a somewhat laborious process that prompted Vice Mayor Terry to ask for brevity in comments from all present so the Council Meeting could end by 10:00 pm (they missed it by about ten minutes).

Along with Community Enhancement Analyst Stacey Delaney, the council went through a spreadsheet detailing the 82 applications which included monies requested, monies recommended by staff or no recommendation at all. Comments could be made from the public, the applicant and of course, the Council. Furthermore, the Council could pull an application for further discussion on May 3. In preparing their recommendations, staff looked at the return on investment, if the applicant could carry out the project, if they were leveraging other funding sources and partnerships and many other facets.

The funds requested from applicants total $5.3 million and staff recommend in the realm of $2.1 million. The Council has until May 17 to make their final approvals.

At the beginning of the night, proclamations were given to Sierra Donor Services for their organ transplant work, the Sacramento Public Library in celebration of librarians and library workers, and to outgoing Community Prosecutor Shauna Franklin who Mayor Gatewood humorously told he was going to keep with the city for “another ten, twenty years” due to her much appreciated work. Her replacement Lauren Miller was also in attendance.

In recognition of Arts, Culture and Creativity Month, Shelly Blanchard of the Cordova Community Council reported the exploits of the city’s art community and what lay on the horizon. Similar in his sentiment about Community Prosecutor Franklin, the Mayor told Blanchard forbade her from ever retiring.

Public comments concerning items not on the agenda came from Andranik Poladyan who hoped the city would adopt a resolution to recognize the 1915-1917 Armenian Genocide and Laine Himmelman of Habitat for Humanity who shared a story how the organization had helped with the roof repair for a Rancho Cordova Senior couple with the assistance of the aforementioned CEF.

Opening Council Reports, Councilmember Sander declared it had been a “very busy two weeks” as many things slowed down by COVID-19 were all coming back at once. Federal policy meetings regarding jobs, transportation and rescue funding he took part in focused on cities like Rancho Cordova. Councilmember Pulipati attended a career panel, a women’s empowerment meeting and met with the Chamber of Commerce to see how they could continue to grow the relationship between the Chamber and the Council. A “groundbreaking” water reclamation project to provide water for county agriculture purposes was reported by Councilmember Budge after her meeting at the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo). She also gave comments regarding her Regional Transit meeting on the annexation of Elk Grove into the regional transit district and a new voting structure.

During his report, Vice Mayor Terry said there was no significant instance of COVID-19 with student or staff for the Folsom Cordova School District hailing the county “as a shining example of how to do this the right way.” He also mentioned the Children’s Museum would soon have a “soft” re-opening with limited capacity and for members only. Terry also gave a recent presentation to sales agents at a Builders Industry Association (BIA) meeting “selling” Rancho Cordova to the new home industry.

On a sadder note, City Manager Cyrus Abhar thanked Council and everyone who had sent condolences due to the recent passing of his mother. Suggested by Councilmember Budge, the meeting closed in memory of her.