By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com

The Sanford-Lee County Planning Department will review several commercial development proposals later in October, including for two competing drive-thru coffee shops on opposite ends of town.

7 Brew Coffee, a drive-thru chain founded in Arkansas in 2017, is proposed at Riverbirch Corner in west Sanford, which is currently being redeveloped with Target as an anchor by Ohio-based commercial developer CASTO.

Across town, a Dutch Bros Coffee location is proposed for Adams Village, a new commercial development south of Walmart on N.C. 87 that will also be home to an Olive Garden restaurant, a Longhorn Steakhouse and more. Dutch Bros is also a drive-thru chain, and was founded in Oregon in 1992. It’s now headquartered in Arizona.

The Dutch Bros location is one of two outparcels for Adams Village on the TRC agenda for October. The agenda doesn’t specify what might occupy the second outparcel, but describes it as a 5,157 square foot building “for one or two tenants.”

The TRC is made up of local officials from various city and county government entities and meets monthly to review commercial, housing and industrial proposals for compliance with the codes and policies of various local departments. TRC approval of a project – or even submission of a proposal for consideration – is not a concrete indicator that the project will happen; the TRC only looks at whether proposals meet city, county and state requirements.

Other items on the October TRC agenda include:

*Demolition of existing church buildings and construction of a new 7,100 square foot worship center – Global Revival & Harvest Center – at 1037 San-Lee Drive,

*Construction of a new 10,000 square foot commercial building for Meridian Waste at 274 Cumnock Road,

*Construction of two industrial buildings totaling 600,000 square feet for STERIS, to be located at the Helix Innovation Park off Hawkins Avenue,

*Construction of a Rocket Car Wash on N.C. 87 south of the intersection with Cox Maddox Road, and

*A conceptual site plan on 6.3 acres at Tramway Road and Fire Tower Road. The proposal is vague, saying only that the site plan will serve “as the basis for a site plan-specific conditional rezoning request for a limited, specific set of potential future commercial uses.”