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Dutch Bros Coffee is planning to build a coffee shop with a drive-thru at the southwest corner of Justin Road and Stone Hill Farms Parkway in Flower Mound.
But this chain's coffee shop will not look like the hundreds of other Dutch Bros Coffee locations operating across 11 states.
That is because the town’s development standards prohibit franchise architecture.
“Each building should be unique,” Lexin Murphy, the town’s director of planning services, told Town Council at its Nov. 1 meeting.
Dutch Bros Coffee sought exceptions to the town’s standards related to the building’s color, its unified design theme with buildings in the vicinity, its pitched roof and the property’s underground utility lines.
The town’s standards require roof pitches and slopes on smaller commercial buildings, according to a staff memo prepared for the planning and zoning commission. Dutch Bros submitted a flat roof design on the main area of the building so equipment could be kept there and added a pitched roof tower element.
While standards require utility lines to be moved underground for any new development, two of the three utility poles needed to remain above ground to service other overhead lines on an adjacent property, according to a letter from Oncor. Dutch Bros asked to be allowed to leave the utility lines as is.
As far as colors, a typical Dutch Bros Coffee shop has a building that is mostly blue. The design for the Flower Mound location proposed a band of blue at the top of a gray stone building.
The town’s standards also require a “unified design theme if there are three or more buildings within a nonresidential subdivision.”
According to a town memo, “In staff’s opinion, the combination of dark stone, Dutch Bros’ blue paint and the absence of a pitch roof design creates a noncohesive design pattern within the subdivision.”
At an Oct. 11 meeting, the planning and zoning commission voted against allowing any exceptions in its recommendation to Town Council.
Dutch Bros Coffee changed some of the building’s elevations, replaced the beige stucco with gray stucco and matched its gray stone with a neighboring business for its proposal submitted to Town Council.
Gene Colley with Embree Development Group represented Dutch Bros Coffee at the Nov. 1 Town Council meeting.
“I feel like Dutch is working very diligently to be part of the community and made tremendous concessions,” he said. “When you’re building a store every five days in the United States and none of them are being asked to get rid of the blue—none of them ... I want them in Flower Mound.”
Council members discussed the various elements of the proposal. Two council motions—one to approve as presented with the exceptions and one to approve minus the blue coloring—failed for lack of a second to the motion. A third motion to allow only the underground utilities exception failed in a 2-3 vote.Council then voted 3-2 to approve the proposal with the exceptions as presented. Council Member Ben Bumgarner was absent from the meeting. Mayor Derek France voted to break the tie among council members.
Colley told council that Dutch Bros Coffee hopes to bring two or three more locations to Flower Mound. During the discussion some council members noted that approval of this building design at this location does not guarantee that the same design would be approved in other locations.
According to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, construction on the Dutch Bros Coffee in Flower Mound is expected to start Feb. 1 and be done by June 15.
