A drawing shared Monday night at the Farmington Planning Board meeting shows the entrance and exit for Aroma’ Joe’s coffee shop at 293 Main St. will be from Front Street only. The site is the former Gifford’s Ice Cream shop. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

FARMINGTON — The Planning Board on Monday evening approved the application and change of use to develop an Aroma Joe’s drive-thru at the former Gifford’s Ice Cream shop at at 293 Main St.

In December, it was reported a franchisee owner had purchased the property and that the Planning Board would review the Aroma Joe’s application at its January meeting.

“We bought the old Gifford’s building and plan to renovate it, turn it into a coffee shop,” owner Aaron Wiswell said. “It’s pretty straightforward, simple. We are going to redo the building that is there and have a little café and drive-thru.”

Planning Board member Michael Guerrette noted the building had been flooded in May and December 2023 when the Sandy River rose and covered lower Main Street and other areas in Franklin County. The previous owners did not make any renovations afterward.

“We have gutted it down,” Wiswell said. “It is pretty deceiving from the outside. The floor inside is actually lower than the pavement level outside. We are going to raise the whole thing 18 inches. We plan to cement board the walls.”

Guerrette asked about the plan for customer parking in front, given that Main Street is busy.

Wiswell referred to the plan which is for a café-style facility.

“The drive-thru is completely segregated at the back, so the only way you can go through to get to Main Street you have to go out the side road, so we don’t jam up any traffic there,” he said. There is a pedestrian crosswalk to cross Main Street, he noted.

Wiswell confirmed the customer parking in front is not part of the drive-thru, but is for DoorDash and people coming into the café. “The drive-thru is the majority of our business — (cars) will come in the back and then go out the back out that side road,” he said.

Those entering from Main Street can go out Main or Front streets, Wiswell said. “The amount of traffic there would be limited to the amount of parking spots,” he said. “Usually our cafés don’t get a ton of activity. It is the drive-thru.”

“I know it’s popular right there for baseball games, people crossing the street, so you might get foot traffic from there,”Guerrette said.

“That is the hope, that people will use the café,” Wiswell said.

Planning Board member Clayton King said he was pleased with how the drive-thru was laid out with limited parking in front. He asked if the outside was going to be changed.

It will be re-sided and the trim redone, Wiswell said.

“It will look a little different,” he said. “It’s not going to be anything wild. It’s just going to be our typical white and gray. Basically, we are going to keep the exact characteristics that are there with a little overhang and all that stuff. We are going to put a channel letter sign on the bottom.”

Inside, there will be a bar top with four seats, one table with six seats, and three individual chairs, for a total of 13 seats.

Board member Mike Otley expressed concern about cars coming out of the drive-thru.

Wiswell said there would be raised curbing to push cars back from the stop sign.

Guerrette asked why Aroma Joe’s was considered a change of use.

Code Officer Steve Kaiser said a drive-thru is considered a separate item in the town’s Zoning Ordinance table of uses.

Code Assistant Kate Foster said Aroma Joe’s state highway department permit was already grandfathered.

Jaqueline and Chasya Sylvester were concerned with the amount of traffic already there with McDonald’s. “I just feel it’s chaotic over there,” Chasya said.

Kaiser said the public works director had worked with the owner and there were no new road openings.

The Farmington Planning Board on Monday evening approved a slight reduction in size for the proposed ConvenientMD medical facility planned at 118 Knowlton Corner Road, next to Pizza Hut. The board was also told approval was given to remove the paved strip along Wilton Road, seen in this Google Maps screen capture, and create a landscaped area, in part to prevent parking there. Google maps screen capture

In other business

The board approved an amendment to the size of the proposed ConvenientMD medical facility at 118 Knowlton Corner Road, next to Pizza Hut.

In September the Planning Board approved the application for the facility.

It’s going from 5,310 square feet to 5,156 square feet, Kaiser said.

“It’s a change; there may be more,” he said.

The engineer was given permission to remove a small strip of paved area by Wilton Road left from another project and landscape it, Kaiser said, to keep people from parking there.