Dutch Bros Coffee opened their first Ceres location earlier this year but Tuesday’s Ceres Planning Commission meeting led to the approval of yet another location – this one on the west side at 1010 E. Whitmore Avenue. It is proposed for the parcel east of the third O’Reilly’s Auto Parts approved the prior meeting.

The commission was asked to consider approving a parcel split of a 4.8 acre parcel into four parcels and construct a 950-square-foot Dutch Bros Coffee building on a 0.82-acre parcel. The proposed coffee business is for the lot to the east of Dollar General.

The business will feature a walk-up window as well as drive-up lanes.

Grey Peak Development LLC of Las Vegas applied for the action.

Sandra Fox, a senior planner with Barghausen Consulting Engineers, chimed in via Zoom to say her firm has enjoyed working with city staff on both projects.

Planning Commission Chairman Bob Kachel noted: “If their business is anything like the coffee business over there that just opened a couple of months ago, they’ll do well. The place is always busy.”

He also commented that it was great to see two meetings back to back with something going on for the west side and two other lots being graded for potential future businesses.

Commissioner Cerina Otero asked if the city has been considering modifications to Whitmore Avenue for safe ingress and egress into the new development sites.

City Engineer Kevin Waugh said the city is designing the road resurfacing Whitmore Avenue to Crows Landing Road. He said the businesses will be fronting the costs of making improvements to the road in front of their stores.

Otero said the Dutch Bros project “is a good opportunity for that side of town. It’s going to bring some jobs, especially to our youth. I think they hire starting at 16 so it’s a good location.”