Iowa City Board approves drive‑through at 1910 Lower Muscatine Road with added screening

The Iowa City Board of Adjustment on [date] approved a special exception to permit a drive‑through at 1910 Lower Muscatine Road, subject to conditions requiring substantial compliance with the submitted site plan and a five‑foot S2 screening buffer along the property’s east side.

Anne Russett of Neighborhood and Development Services told the board the property is zoned CC2 and historically hosted a multilane drive‑through when a bank occupied the site. Russett said staff recommended approval, noting the proposal places a single pickup window at the rear non‑street‑facing façade, provides at least six stacking spaces to meet minimum standards, and will require site plan review to confirm pavement markings, signage and the pickup‑window location. “As was mentioned, this is a proposed special exception for a drive through use for the property at 1910 Lower Muscatine Road,” Russett said.

Thomas McInerney, the project architect, said the design repurposes the site’s legacy drive‑through infrastructure for a convenience store to be operated as Crown Liquor and Smoke. McInerney said the proposal limits the drive‑through to a single pickup window for pre‑ordered online sales and will require in‑person ID verification for age‑restricted purchases. “The drive through will function exclusively as a pickup window for pre placed online orders via a mobile app or website,” McInerney said.

A nearby property owner, Dennis Kronk of 1580 Mall Drive, opposed the request and urged the board to consider safety and circulation impacts. Kronk told the board that cars already cut through his parking lot to nearby businesses and warned the new drive‑through “will lead to additional traffic through our parking lot, which, will impact the safety of our staff and our clients.” He also questioned applicant and staff assumptions about setbacks and whether stacking spaces and screening as drawn would be effective.

Board members discussed whether the required screening along the adjacent property should be widened. Several members expressed concern that the currently shown three‑foot planting strip might be too narrow to survive and screen the drive lane effectively; others worried that expanding the landscaped buffer could limit the ability of drivers to leave the stacking lane safely. The board ultimately adopted an amendment to require S2 screening occupying five feet between the drive lane and the neighboring property and retained staff’s original condition that the site plan submitted with the special exception be met at site plan review.

The board called the question by roll call. The vote on the amended approval was 3–2 in favor (Swigard: No; Tallman: Yes; Baker: No; Carlson: Yes; Russo: Yes), and the motion passed. The chair advised that anyone wishing to appeal the decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after the decision is filed with the city clerk’s office.

Next steps: the approval requires the applicant to submit a detailed site plan for staff review that incorporates the pickup window location, pavement markings and signage and implements the five‑foot S2 screening between the drive lane and the adjacent property.