Copyright Chicago Tribune
A new location of Scooter’s Coffee, a national drive-thru joint offering specialty drinks and light breakfast, is planned to open in Aurora near Interstate 88. Scooter’s Coffee has a growing presence in the area, with one having opened in Oswego this year and another along Route 59 in Naperville last year. Plans and zoning for what is set to be the latest nearby location were approved by the Aurora City Council on Tuesday. The recently-approved plans place the future coffee spot at 1329 N. Lake Street, just in front of the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center. The new Scooter’s location is planned to be within a roughly 2,800 square foot commercial building set to be built on the site, according to a staff report included with Tuesday’s City Council meeting agenda. The to-be-constructed building will also hold a separate commercial retail space, but it isn’t clear at this point which business will go into that space, city planner Steve Broadwell told the Aurora City Council’s Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee at a meeting on Oct. 29. He said that the Scooter’s Coffee set to be located in the building will not have indoor seating for customers. However, the building will have 19 dedicated parking spaces, the staff report shows. The property already has three access points — two on Lake Street and another on Sullivan Road. The main Lake Street entrance is being widened, Broadwell said, and the Sullivan Road access is being shifted slightly and widened. The city’s traffic engineer didn’t have any real concerns about the drive-thru creating increased traffic at the intersection, he said. Alongside the rest of the project, a five-foot wide sidewalk will be built along the Lake Street side of the property and connect to a bike path on the Sullivan Road side, according to Broadwell. The Aurora City Council Tuesday also approved other changes to the site, such as separating the parcel of land the Scooter’s building is set to be built on from the parcel holding the existing Fox Valley Adult Transition Center, plus making some zoning changes to properly accommodate the Transition Center. Scooter’s Coffee first began in 1998 when co-founders Don and Linda Eckles opened “Scooter’s Java Express” in Bellevue, Nebraska, according to the company’s website. Since then, the brand has spread across the country with a menu of lattes, smoothies, and other specialty drinks in addition to food like muffins, breakfast sandwiches and egg bites. rsmith@chicagotribune.com
