Garden Grove / Central Orange County
Brookhurst and Chapman is the densest pad setting we could verify: Chipotle's Garden Grove Promenade store at 9737 Chapman and Wendy's at 10040 Chapman bracket the corner, with Sprouts (9848 Chapman) and PetSmart (9835 Chapman) on the same frontage. Harbor Boulevard between the 12200 and 13300 blocks carries the city's Raising Cane's (12202 S. Harbor), a Starbucks drive-thru, a Jack in the Box, a Taco Bell and a Bank of America financial center. Brookhurst at Westminster has two drive-thru coffee users and a Bank of America branch, and Garden Grove Boulevard has a Taco Bell (10901), a Jack in the Box (8971) and the Del Taco (11070). Chick-fil-A's California directory lists no Garden Grove restaurant, which is worth knowing if you represent a chicken concept.
Population
170,964
Median HHI
$92,174
Median age
40.2
Homeownership
53.1%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Brookhurst Street · Harbor Boulevard · Chapman Avenue · Westminster Avenue · Garden Grove Boulevard
Specific shopping centers in Garden Grove that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
Chapman Avenue at Brookhurst Street
Anchors / key tenants: regional and value retail mix
Repositioned from the original 1956 Orange County Plaza. Long-running community center at the city’s most important retail intersection (Brookhurst/Chapman).
Brookhurst Street at Westminster Avenue
Anchors / key tenants: Sushi Kura, Boiling Point, The Boiling Crab
On the edge of Little Saigon, a dense Vietnamese restaurant cluster (Sushi Kura, Boiling Point, The Boiling Crab, Banh Mi Che Cali, Blackball, Yogurtland) at the busiest intersection of Brookhurst and Westminster.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Garden Grove rents. These are publicly visible retail pad space businesses currently trading in the market.
In-N-Out Burger (Garden Grove, store 19)
9032 Trask Avenue, Garden Grove, CA 92844
In-N-Out's finder lists a drive-thru and no dining room, with an open date of June 1978. City staff describe it as a 1,355 sq ft restaurant with a full-length dual-lane drive-thru at the southeast corner of Trask Avenue and Magnolia Street, zoned PUD-107-96 next to the SR-22 freeway. In 2025 the Planning Commission approved demolishing the adjacent 4,127 sq ft former Mae's Cafe to add queuing and parking.
Raising Cane's (Harbor Blvd - Garden Grove)
12202 S. Harbor Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92840
The only Raising Cane's in the city, with drive-thru hours on its store page. Harbor Boulevard sites may fall under the Harbor Corridor Specific Plan rather than Table 1.
Chipotle (Garden Grove Promenade)
9737 Chapman Avenue, Garden Grove, CA 92841
Chipotle names this store Garden Grove Promenade and describes it as near Chapman Avenue and Brookhurst Street; the address is inside the 9635-9939 Chapman range The Promenade's leasing listing gives. Its page lists in-store pickup and delivery but no Chipotlane pickup lane.
Wendy's
10040 Chapman Avenue, Garden Grove, CA 92840
The only Wendy's in Garden Grove on the brand's locator, on the east side of Brookhurst and Chapman.
Taco Bell (four drive-thru restaurants)
8042 Garden Grove (92844), 5891 Chapman Avenue (92845), 13291 Harbor Boulevard (92843) and 10901 Garden Grove Boulevard (92843), Garden Grove, CA
Taco Bell's city page lists four restaurants, each tagged Drive-Thru. The first listing omits the street suffix.
Jack in the Box (four restaurants)
8971 Garden Grove Boulevard (92844), 12103 Valley View Street (92845), 13282 Harbor Boulevard (92843) and 12107 Euclid Street (92840), Garden Grove, CA
Per Jack in the Box's Garden Grove locator page. The Garden Grove Boulevard unit sits in the stretch between Beach and Brookhurst the catalog calls the Korean District.
Del Taco
11070 Garden Grove Boulevard, Garden Grove, CA 92843
The only Del Taco in the city on the brand's locator.
Starbucks drive-thru stores and Dutch Bros
Eight Starbucks drive-thrus (including 12711 and 13992 Brookhurst Street, 11001 Chapman Avenue and 12861 Harbor Boulevard) and Dutch Bros at 9901 Westminster Avenue, Garden Grove, CA
From Starbucks' locator and Dutch Bros' Garden Grove page. The coffee page lists each store.
Bank of America financial centers
9591 Chapman Avenue (Garden Grove Main), 12421 Valley View Street, 11460 Knott Street, 13952 Brookhurst Street (Brookhurst-Westminster) and 13242 Harbor Boulevard (Harbor / Flagstone), Garden Grove, CA
Five financial centers with ATMs on Bank of America's Garden Grove locator page. The page does not say which are freestanding pad buildings.
01
Check the zone letter first. In a C-1, C-2 or C-3 zone, Table 1 of Section 9.16.020.030 permits Eating Establishment/Restaurant without alcohol by right, and Section 9.04.060 counts drive-in and drive-thru restaurants as part of that use, so there is no drive-through CUP. In the GGMU, CC-3 and NMU mixed-use zones, the city's posted 2012 Chapter 9.18 ordinance (Section 9.18.030.130) requires a conditional use permit for any drive-through, a 20,000 sq ft minimum lot, two 80-foot queue segments, arterial-only access and a screen wall where headlights would reach homes. The city's GIS layer maps the Chapman frontage around Brookhurst as NMU.
02
A new pad is a site plan: Section 9.32.030 requires a site plan for any new building outside residential zones, and the Threshold of Review table makes the Planning Commission the hearing body. Harbor Boulevard parcels may instead fall under the Harbor Corridor Specific Plan, whose district lists (posted on the city's Specific Plans page) set their own permitted uses and a 50,000 sq ft minimum lot in at least one district. Plan the queue before the building, too. At In-N-Out on Trask Avenue, the Planning Commission approved Site Plan SP-157-2025 on June 5, 2025 (Resolution 6112-25) to tear down a neighboring vacant restaurant and merge the lots (LLA-036-2025) for more drive-thru stacking and parking, then approved a revision on April 16, 2026 (Resolution 6130-26) to keep a two-way driveway on Trask. At the June hearing the Commission also deleted a proposed condition that would have barred deliveries before 7:00 a.m. and after 10:00 p.m. Expect queue length, driveway design and delivery hours to be negotiated at the site plan hearing.
03
Parking by pad type under Section 9.16.040.150: a freestanding restaurant needs 1 space per 100 sq ft with at least 10, so a 3,000 sq ft QSR needs 30. A bank needs 1 per 200 sq ft if it has a drive-up window but 1 per 150 without one. Service stations with a store need 1 per pump plus 1 per 200 sq ft of sales area plus 3 per bay.
04
Auto service pads: Table 1 makes Minor Auto Maintenance and Tire Sales and Service conditional in C-1 and permitted in C-2 and C-3, Service Stations conditional in C-1, C-2, C-3 and M-1, and Automatic Car Wash conditional in C-2 and C-3 with hours limited to 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Section 9.16.020.050.G). In the August 20, 2026 staff report for a Katella Avenue car wash (CUP-103-65, Rev. 2026), the city required 5 times the conveyor capacity plus employee spaces and, by city policy, credited half the cars in the queue lane toward required parking.
05
Traffic: Garden Grove's retail arterials are city streets, so they are not in Caltrans' state highway counts. Caltrans' 2023 AADT points on the SR-22 freeway through the city run from 149,200 vehicles a day between Beach Boulevard and Magnolia Street to 212,300 just east of Harbor Boulevard, and Beach Boulevard (SR-39) carried about 77,000 a day at the SR-22 junction. Ask the city's traffic engineering staff for arterial counts on Brookhurst, Chapman or Harbor before you model a drive-thru. For utilities, a QSR pad will need Orange County Health Care Agency plan check, and Garden Grove Sanitary District Ordinance No. 6 (Section 4.30.100) calls for an exterior grease interceptor with at least two compartments and 24-inch access manholes where the FOG Control Program Manager requires one, which affects where the pad can sit on the lot.
Zoning, licensing, and demographic figures on this page come from the public records below. Codes and licenses change, so confirm with the city and the licensing agency before you sign.