Scooter’s Coffee, a national chain of small, drive-thru coffee shops is opening a franchise location in Warrenton, offering to fill an often noted gap in on-the-go food offerings of the area.

Scooter’s is known for its model of tiny, drive-thru-only buildings that serve coffee, drinks and fast breakfast items. The Omaha-based company has a growing number of locations in the greater St. Louis region.

This month, store owner and franchisee Bart Vandeven of Jackson, Mo., received city approval to build a drive-thru Scooter’s location on Highway 47 just south of Interstate 70. The Scooter’s will be located on the east side of the highway, between One Stop Smoke Shop and the SSM Health office.

Vandeven told city officials that he owns four other Scooter’s locations in Missouri and Illinois. He said the Warrenton location would be open from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and that their model is to quickly keep vehicles moving through their line.

“The average for a store is 86 cars in the 7-9 a.m. time frame. That’s typically the busiest time of day,” Vandeven said.

The Warrenton Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to approve construction of the coffee shop during their March 15 public meeting. Alderman Scott Schulze was absent.

However, the proposed coffee shop wasn’t approved without a slight speed bump. During a preliminary hearing with the city’s citizen planning and zoning commission on March 3, member John Cornell worried that the steady traffic flow in and out of Scooter’s wouldn’t merge well with one of the busiest parts of Highway 47.

“There is no center turn lane in front of this if you’re southbound on Highway 47. That’s my biggest concern. That is already a mess in the morning,” Cornell commented. “I just don’t know how we’re going to get traffic in and out of there.”

Vandeven replied that one of the reasons this location was selected is that the majority of morning traffic there is northbound, heading toward I-70. That means most of the cars will be turning right to get in and right to get out, minimizing cross traffic, he said. There will also be a rear entrance and exit to Niehuss Road and Steinhagen Road.

In response to the traffic concern, project engineers adjusted the Scooter’s site plan to have better traffic flow on the property, said Warrenton Planning Director Tim Burks.

“They widened the entrance and exit on (Highway) 47, they moved the staff parking, they moved the building back 10 feet to get more cars in the drive-thru, and they also are going to put up a sign to let people know they can get out at the rear, towards Steinhagen,” Burks explained.

In addition to those features, aldermen also debated whether to require paved access for cars to cross between the Scooter’s lot and the neighboring properties north and south. After a lot of back and forth, aldermen decided against the requirement, saying that forcing the business to develop a new parking and drive-thru layout would be an undue burden too late in the approval process.