A drive-through Starbucks at the Target center at Bloomfield and Del Amo.
January 27, 2023
By Brian Hews
The Cerritos City Council is expected to approve another Starbucks inside Cerritos’ borders located inside the Target parking lot at 20200 Bloomfield Avenue, on the corner of Bloomfield and Del Amo.
The development will include demolishing the vacant Target garden center and constructing a Starbucks single-lane drive-through restaurant at the southwestern corner of the property.
The building will be 1,844 square feet with a ten-car drive-thru that can be entered from many directions: cars can enter from two areas of the Target parking lot, enter from Bloomfield almost directly from the street or enter from Del Amo.
Those entering from Del Amo would turn left against departing traffic and traverse the parking lot, merging with cars coming in from Bloomfield.
The Del Amo entrance is similar to a design in the city of Orange, where patrons rarely use the parking spots because there are so many cars going into the drive-through that they block the parking spots.
The Orange store has a smilar egress from Bloomfield that also causes gridlock and frayed nerves.
A new crosswalk will be designated for patrons braving parking lot traffic going into Target from Starbucks near the Del Amo entrance.
A pedestrian walking path will assist those walking to the Starbucks entering from Del Amo to cross the exit of the drive-thru.
Following Cerritos’ usual procedures for landscaping, the property surrounding the Starbucks will be beautifully adorned with Crape Myrtle tees, Date Palms, and lush ground cover.
Included in the plans is a spacious outdoor area with seating for sixteen patrons.
The action will create revisions to the Cerritos Municipal Code, allowing drive-through service restaurants within community commercial, neighborhood, commercial, and regional commercial zones.
Under the new code, any zone less than or equal to nine acres will not be allowed to drive through. Any zone greater than nine acres will be allowed one drive-through; any zone greater than nine acres and adjacent to a freeway right of way will be allowed two.
Under the revised code, six new drive-through’s could be approved in Cerritos; College Square, Plaza 183, Los Cerritos Center, the Cerritos Promenade/Target South Center; the Cerritos Plaza, and the Target Bloomfield.
The city will establish design and other standards, including landscaping screening, drive-through requirements, noise mitigation measures, parking and circulation requirements, no alcohol sales through the drive-through window and permitted hours of operation.
