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“With more traffic, particularly if you have a business there, people are on their way to work and they’re in a rush. I have a slight concern those kids will not always be noticed as quickly as they should be. Have we had any conversations with our friends in the school district about that and the amount of walking traffic that takes place there?”

Police Chief Peter Koerner said that the department had an unmarked squad monitoring the intersection last week. He said that most kids walk to Crestview, and just two buses service the school.

“I don’t want to go back too far, but in the last six weeks or so we noticed a lot of traffic concerns around all of our schools,” he said, noting that there’s increased vehicle traffic because families aren’s as inclined to send their kids to school on the bus because of COVID-19.

He is in dialog with the school district on the situation.

“I’ve been told by the school that the crossing guard has had concerns,” he said. “We started with an unmarked there just to make some observations first. On Tuesday, most (of the vehicles) would stop when pedestrians were present. We had three that didn’t even stop for the right turn. One of them was a school bus.”

“We don’t have a lot of solutions right now, but we are having conversations on a regular basis,” said Koerner about communications with the school district.

“That was my concern is that the dialog needs to happen and that’s already begun. Problems there will only be exacerbated by this business,” said Olsen. “I don’t want some poor little fellow or little lady who is trying to cross the street to go to school to end up in a bad place because somebody wasn’t paying attention. Districted driving is always a concern for public safety.”

Koerner said the school does a good job making sure the kids don’t try to dart cross the road.

“I’ve been impressed with how well they keep kids in the crosswalk there.”

A memo to the council from Senior Planner Emily Schmitz states, “City staff has provided the Washington County School District the project plans for the site given the location near Crestview Elementary School and will continue to work with the District to ensure pedestrian traffic has safe crossing at the Hinton Avenue and 80th Street intersection. The city’s Public Safety and Public Works Departments will also be working with the school district to address concerns related to posting a crossing guard at the intersection during high pedestrian traffic. Public Safety will work with the school to ensure motorists are following traffic laws given the signal at 80th Street and Hinton Avenue is set to protect red, meaning at any time the pedestrian signal is engaged, all directions of traffic receive a red light, therefore no traffic is crossing the intersection when pedestrians are crossing.”

A concern was also that traffic in the driveway could back up out of the parking lot. The engineering memo states that there is enough room on site for vehicles in the drivethrough.

“Given the concern for potential back up of traffic onto Hinton Avenue, the applicant’s site plan provides additional room within the site for the stacking of vehicles during higher traffic times. The site has room to support approximately 15 vehicles in queue for the drive-through lane as they would be able to wrap around the parking lot or park within the site,” the memo from Schmitz states. “City staff understands they will need to monitor the traffic patterns of the new use of the site once the business is open to ensure any safety impacts are addressed immediately.”

Council members were comfortable that the safety matters are being addressed.

“I love the idea of a viable business on that corner. It’s been way too long,” said Olsen.

Mark Krogh of Java Companies told the council that there’s actually room for 20 cars to back up through the drive-through if necessary.

“We’re willing to work with the city to do whatever will make the city feel comfortable,” he said. “We’re excited for this project and planning staff has been great to work with.”

The council unanimously adopted two resolutions to allow the Caribou Cabin to forge ahead: one approving a preliminary and final plat and one approving a site plan for Caribou Cabin.

A rendering of the proposed Caribou drive-through in Cottage Grove.