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The Pleasanton Planning Commission approved an application to turn a former Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant into Pleasanton’s first-ever Philz Coffee during its meeting Wednesday.
The application was approved as part of the commission’s consent calendar, which are items considered routine in nature and are typically approved through a single vote with little to no discussion
“Looking forward to Philz Coffee,” Chairperson Matt Gaidos said during the Dec. 11 meeting.
There were no additional comments made regarding the coffee shop’s now approved applications for a conditional use permit, design review, and sign design review to operate the Philz Coffee.
Eric Luchini, senior planner for the city, wrote in his staff report for Wednesday’s meeting that staff have reviewed the design proposal for the potential new Philz Coffee and that the design plans are consistent with city regulations and ordinances.
The coffee shop, which was founded in San Francisco in 2003 and has since expanded throughout California and Chicago, will be taking over an existing commercial building at 1803 Santa Rita Road — located inside the Valley Plaza Shopping Center
The establishment would be the second to open in the Tri-Valley, with another location at City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.
According to Luchini, the coffee shop’s design plans are not proposing any major changes to the building itself.
Instead, the plan is to repurpose the existing approximately 2,479-square-foot former KFC building and operate a drive-thru coffee shop daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. with a maximum of five employees on-site.
In his report, Luchini noted that the applicant — Patti Nelson, the chief development officer for Philz Coffee — is mainly proposing minor exterior changes to the existing building’s roof as well as new site and building-mounted signage.
Only minimal color changes are proposed for the existing building, which include changing the metal roof and building cornice colors from white to yellow
Previously, the roof and portions of the building’s walls were painted red when occupied by KFC.
Luchini also wrote that traffic impacts had already been addressed when the shopping center was originally approved and the existing drive-thru was analyzed when the building was first constructed.
“The existing drive-through has been operating for approximately the past 30 years without any traffic or circulation problems being reported to the city,” Luchini wrote. “The city’s traffic engineer has reviewed the assessment and agrees it is unlikely that vehicle queues would extend beyond the limits of the existing drive-through lane and into the shopping center drive aisles.”
Great add to Pleasanton! Looking forward to having Philz in town.
Very excited to have a Philz closer to home.
I’m interested to see how the Drive-Thru works out for them though…both from a traffic perspective and from a customer perspective. Having practically ready-made fast-food from a basically static menu at, per my observation, an almost always empty drive-thru, is a bit different than the main concept at Philz, which is brewing a cup of coffee to order as a pour-over, which takes a few minutes at least per cup. Plus, if it’s as busy as the other locations I’ve been to in the area – mostly San Ramon and Fremont, it will be much busier, causing more traffic. The large size lot in the plaza may be well be able to handle that without spilling out into the street…like…ahem….Chick-Fil-A used to, it will still, even if very efficiently run, be a wait to get a coffee. At San Ramon, it’s not odd at busier times to have to wait 20 minutes for your cup of coffee. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Philz drive-thru before, either.