Three commercial developments proposed for the busy Middle and Devils Glen Road corridor hit snags at the Bettendorf Planning and Zoning commission last week (9/20) because of parking and traffic concerns.
• Hy-Vee wants to demolish Governor's Pub & Grill on the northwest corner of the Middle and Devils Glen intersection to build a gas station, convenience store and coffee shop with a drive-thru lane.
• Russell Construction (Mark Snyder) wants to build a 14,000-square-foot strip mall call Spartan Square between Whitey's Ice Cream and ColoHub (formerly the Eagles Food Store parking lot) that would consist of seven businesses, including two restaurants, and a drive-thru lane.
• Atomic Coffee, a booming local coffee shop, wants to build an outlet with two drive-up lanes near Middle and Belmont Roads along Ridge Pointe Road.
After lengthy discussions concerning internal traffic, stacking of cars waiting in the drive-thru lanes and worries how customers would access and leave the sites, the commission deferred the Hy-Vee and Spartan Square projects and then rejected the site plan for Atomic Coffee.
The two deferred projects are expected to be revised by the developers to relieve the commission's traffic concerns and brought back for reconsideration in the future.
The Atomic Coffee site plan can proceed to the city council because the commission is only a recommending body, but approval of the project will require a super-majority (5 votes) of the council to override the decision.
The commission did approve, by a 5-1 vote, a rezoning which will permit the construction of a new restaurant on the northeast corner of Devils Glen and Tanglefoot Road. The name of the restaurant was not disclosed at the meeting, but it is believed the site will be the new location of the Governor's Pub, which will be displaced by the proposed Hy-Vee gas station.
