Violet Saveh was before the Ceres Planning Commission on Monday trying to win approval to move her Heaven Snow shaved ice kiosk to a different section of the LA Sequoia Market parking lot. She also asked for a drive-thru lane to hold a cue of up to three vehicles.

But the commission, which previously has denied her attempts to get approval for a drive-thru lane, feared congestion problems from her proposal and tabled the matter until Monday, May 27.

Saveh currently has a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to operate the kiosk, which sells coffees and snow cones in the summer. She asked the city permission to move her operation from the southwest area of the La Sequoia Market parking lot to the northeast area just south of Caswell Avenue.

Senior Planner Teddie Hernandez said the parking lot is large enough that the operation would not impact parking and since police and fire raised no objections. But commissioners found fault with her layout.

Commissioner Bob Kachel saw that her design had the drive-thru lane going west to east against traffic that would be coming in off of Caswell Avenue and moving west. He noted that the kiosk and a cue of three cars would prevent parking at the north edge of the lot.

“I’m just concerned we’re trying to put too much in too little of a space and creating potential issues of cars coming west off of Caswell and they turn in there … with cars facing the other way,” said Kachel. “I don’t think this works.”

He also expressed frustration with “a lack of a better site plan.”

Commissioner Gary Condit also feared congestion with those using the Water Mill kiosk station in that area as well as two garbage dumpsters at the side of the market.

Kachel also expressed concern about the potential of a driver to hit the existing kiosk and its occupants since there are no crash posts surrounding it.

Saveh dismissed those concerns, saying, “We’ve been serving the city of Ceres for now 17 years – 17 years is a long time for a little shack to stand strong… never once have we had any accidents.”

She said the issues are “fixable” and that she’s willing to install barriers to prevent the building from crashes and redesign the site map.

Commissioner Cerina Otero said she was concerned about the layout causing traffic conflicts.

“We do have a lot of high school drivers so are they going to be able to navigate through there when they’re in line getting ready to drive out and you have a car pulling in or you have a car that’s going to back out right into that drive-thru area,” said Otero.

Kachel suggested it will be a “real conundrum” to figure out a solution. He did state that one-way only traffic would work from a Central Avenue entrance to a Caswell Avenue exit only.