Makenna Koffee may be opening a second location in Canyon Country, if the city approves plans to open the drive-through where Japanese fast food restaurant Yoshinoya burned down last year.
City staff discussed the proposal by Belmont One Investment Holdings at the Santa Clarita Planning Division’s weekly Pre-Development Review and Development Review Committee meeting on March 26, according to an agenda The Signal received through a California Public Records Act request.
Jason Crawford, the city’s economic development director, said the project was submitted for a minor use permit. Those projects typically don’t require the Planning Commission or City Council’s approval.
According to the agenda, the new drive-through Makenna Koffee would be located at 27598 Sierra Highway, on assessor’s parcel 2844-001-053. In the entitlement application, Belmont One Investment proposes to overhaul the part of the shopping center in the southeast corner of the intersection of Sierra Highway and Soledad Canyon Road, where Yoshinoya burned down.
The building that housed Yoshinoya was demolished. The new cafe building would take up that space and the building next to it, Crawford said.
“Following an unexpected fire loss at the existing structure located at 27592-27598 Sierra Highway on Jan. 6, 2025, this project proposes a revitalization from a 4,000-square-foot multi-tenant building to a new 1,500-square-foot drive-thru establishment,” the entitlement application reads.
The application says the new cafe would have capacity for 14 vehicles total in its drive-through – 11 in the main line and a three-vehicle back-up line. Crawford said that the city has started asking applicants to specify how their project would handle drive-through customers.
“Any time a drive-through is proposed, now we make them do a queuing analysis, basically to make sure that any cars that are stacking in a drive-through queue don’t back out into the street,” Crawford said. “Obviously we’ve had very popular restaurants … where so many cars want to go through their drive-through they’ve had to be creative.”
The new cafe may be exactly the kind of project Santa Clarita residents have been asking for, according to the results of a community opinion survey conducted by True North Research released in July 2024.
When it comes to the trajectory of Santa Clarita’s economic development, of all businesses city residents said they most want to see more of, small cafes topped the list in True North’s survey results.
“The most commonly mentioned type of restaurant or entertainment place was small cafes offering coffee and baked goods (cited by 21% of respondents who desired additional dining/entertainment in the city),” according to True North’s summary report on the survey to the city.
Dilynn Darling, the manager of Makenna Koffee’s Santa Clarita location, said that while she didn’t know the details about plans for a new Santa Clarita location, she was aware the restaurant chain is opening several new locations in the near future.
“We have a bunch opening … our next one opening that’s close to here is Northridge, and then we’re going through Orange County down to San Diego,” Darling said.
