Planning board approves Seven Brew drive‑through in Winter Springs after safety questions

The Winter Springs Planning & Zoning board approved a site plan, aesthetic review and three waiver requests on Nov. 6 for a Seven Brew drive‑through to be built at 1248 East State Road 434, board documents and staff presentation showed.

Senior planner Janelli Garnett told the board the proposal is for a roughly 510‑square‑foot coffee shop with two drive‑thru lanes and a 262‑square‑foot cooler connected by a 5‑foot breezeway on a 0.5‑acre parcel in the Blake Commons plat. Garnett said the building would have no indoor or outdoor seating and that the dumpster will be enclosed and screened by landscaping. Staff recommended approval of the site plan, aesthetic review, a development agreement and three waivers, subject to execution of the development agreement, a prohibition on St. Augustine and other low‑drought‑tolerance grasses on the property, and completion of an economic impact analysis before the item goes to the city commission public hearing.

Board members pressed staff and the applicant’s representative about customer access and operations. Members asked whether pedestrians would be able to order at the proposed door — the design uses an entry door rather than a traditional drive‑thru window — and whether the site includes an order kiosk or audio ordering. Garnett said the site is intended to operate as drive‑thru only; employees typically take orders on tablets and come to cars when queues build. Andrew McDaniel, the project civil designer, said posted clearance beneath a proposed 8.5‑foot overhang was not specified on the civil plans and that architectural drawings should clarify the required clearance before the item reaches the commission.

Board members also asked about parking, staffing levels and lighting near the dumpster and drive‑thru lanes; staff said the site meets code and that photometric details will be verified. Members recommended clear signage and markings to reduce pedestrian safety risk given the unusual ordering arrangement (a door rather than a pickup window).

A board member moved to approve FEDP 202400129 — the site plan, aesthetic review and the related waivers — with the staff conditions; another board member seconded. The board recorded the motion as approved and the item will proceed to a city commission public hearing following the required economic impact analysis.

The staff presentation and plan materials list Aaron Dudley (applicant on record, CI Engineering) and the civil design team represented by Andrew McDaniel. Janelli Garnett is the senior planner of community development who presented the project; Terrell Linroll, director of community development, later answered a separate question about code updates. The board did not receive a public comment opposing the application during the hearing.