Bradenton council narrowly approves drive-through permit at busy Manatee Avenue corner

The Bradenton City Council on Dec. 10 approved a special-use permit to allow a drive-through restaurant on three parcels at 126 5th Avenue Drive East, a development that drew concern from council members over traffic stacking and compatibility with nearby medical offices.

Jamie Schindelof of the planning department told the council the plan is for a 0.3696-acre site in the Urban Central Business District (form-based code area T5). The application, Resolution 25-99, was recommended for approval by the planning commission 6–1. Schindelof said staff found several site-plan issues that must be addressed in permitting, including a required landscape separation strip, a shortfall in handicap parking and a potentially unserviceable dumpster location.

Abid Suwady, representing the applicant, said the most recent revisions increase the drive-through stacking from seven to eight cars, bring parking to 11 spaces (including one handicap stall) and relocate the dumpster to allow service-truck circulation. He said the drive-through tenant would occupy the smaller building while retail space would occupy the larger structure. “Starbucks is the busiest Starbucks in the state of Florida with over 382,000 paying customers on an annual basis,” Suwady said, citing the area’s high morning traffic when defending demand for another coffee drive-through option.

Council debate focused on circulation and long-term goals for the corridor. Vice Mayor Moore said she was concerned about additional queuing and pedestrian safety near the hospital and adjacent medical-office development, warning that “this area is already a horrible traffic situation” and that further automotive uses could undermine walkability goals. Other council members, including Councilwoman Kocher, framed the permit as consistent with existing commercial uses on the corner and said the project would bring retail and jobs.

Public-safety staff told council that technical circulation details — ingress/egress radii, radius ramps and other traffic-engineering measures — will be reviewed by public works and traffic engineering during site-plan review. Fire and police chiefs said off-main-road circulation on the property should preserve emergency access if the final site plan follows required standards.

Councilwoman Coker moved to approve Resolution 25-99 with staff-recommended stipulations, including form-based-code site-plan review, compliance with Florida building and fire codes, and a requirement that the site-improvement permitting phase demonstrate safe and logical traffic circulation and pedestrian access. The motion was seconded and the council voted 4–1 to approve; Vice Mayor Moore voted no.

The approval is limited to the use; the applicant must still secure form-based code adjustments and demonstrate compliance with the details flagged in staff comments before receiving building permits. The council’s action was procedural: final site improvements, traffic mitigation and signage will be resolved in the permitting process, and staff said public-works traffic-engineering review will address the details that informed council’s concerns.