Tustin / Central Orange County
Tustin's drive-through pads concentrate where the big centers meet the freeway. The Tustin side of The Market Place has a row of drive-through users along El Camino Real (Starbucks, El Pollo Loco, Taco Bell and In-N-Out between 2992 and 3020) plus a bank, a car wash and a gas station, with Jamboree Road carrying 66,700 vehicles a day between El Camino Real and I-5 in the City's 2018 counts. The District at Tustin Legacy pairs In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A side by side on Park Avenue, and Barranca Parkway carried 32,300 a day between District Drive and Jamboree. Away from Jamboree, Red Hill Avenue (32,200 between El Camino Real and I-5), Irvine Boulevard (38,800 between Newport and Red Hill) and Newport Avenue (36,000 between El Camino Real and Nisson) already hold Taco Bell, Wendy's and Jack in the Box, which is where a smaller operator or a bank will find pads outside the lifestyle centers.
Population
78,981
Median HHI
$112,503
Median age
37.5
Homeownership
48.8%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates.
Primary retail corridors
Jamboree Road · Barranca Parkway · Newport Avenue · Red Hill Avenue · El Camino Real · Irvine Boulevard
Specific shopping centers in Tustin that already carry credible co-tenancy for this use. Listed in approximate order of fit.
2201–2895 Park Avenue
Anchors / key tenants: Whole Foods Market, Costco, Target, Lowe's
Size: 1,000,000 SF
Vestar's million-SF lifestyle center at Barranca/Jamboree — pulls from Tustin, Irvine, and the OC Great Park edge. Recent leasing: Jini Mini, Café 86, Activate Games, and Le Macaron. The mix also includes Nothing Bundt Cakes and Pinot's Palette.
El Camino Real, Tustin, at I-5 and Jamboree Road
Anchors / key tenants: Target, The Home Depot, Nordstrom Rack, REI
Size: 1,406,215 SF
Irvine Company's open-air regional center at I-5 and Jamboree Road, once called Tustin Market Place. It straddles Tustin and Irvine: El Camino Real addresses are in Tustin and Jamboree Road addresses are in Irvine, so confirm which city's code applies to a suite.
Existing operators are the most honest comp for whether a use can support Tustin rents. These are publicly visible retail pad space businesses currently trading in the market.
In-N-Out Burger, Tustin (District), store 216
2895 Park Avenue, Tustin, CA 92782
Drive-through and dining room, open since April 2008 per In-N-Out's own location data, and listed on The District at Tustin Legacy's directory.
Chick-fil-A The District
2889 Park Avenue, Tustin, CA 92782
Drive-thru, dine-in and carry-out per the restaurant's own page; also on The District's directory. It sits next door by address to the In-N-Out at 2895 Park Avenue.
In-N-Out Burger, Tustin, store 63 (The Market Place)
3020 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92782
Drive-through and dining room, open since October 1990 per In-N-Out, and on Irvine Company's Market Place directory. Part of a run of drive-through users on the Tustin side of the center: Taco Bell at 3010 (drive-thru per Taco Bell), El Pollo Loco at 3002 and Starbucks Coffee & Drive-Thru at 2992 El Camino Real.
Taco Bell (three Tustin restaurants)
3010 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92782
Taco Bell's Tustin page lists 3010 El Camino Real, 17502 E. 17th Street and 14042 Red Hill Avenue, each tagged with drive-thru service. The Red Hill Avenue store is listed as open 24 hours.
Banks and car wash at The Market Place and The District
3025 El Camino Real, Tustin, CA 92782
Irvine Company's store pages put Fifth Third Bank at 3025 El Camino Real, Fast5Xpress Car Wash at 2762 El Camino Real and Chevron at 2740 Bryan Avenue on the Tustin side of The Market Place. The District's directory lists Wells Fargo, Farmers & Merchants Bank, Golden Bank and Kinecta Federal Credit Union, without suite addresses.
Neighborhood QSRs on Newport, Red Hill and 17th
14002 Newport Avenue, Tustin, CA 92780
Jack in the Box lists Tustin restaurants at 14002 Newport Avenue and 17401 17th Street, and Wendy's has one Tustin restaurant at 13922 Red Hill Avenue, per each chain's own locator. Chipotle's two Tustin stores are at 13348 Newport Avenue and 15040 Kensington Park Drive (Tustin Legacy); neither store page mentions a Chipotlane.
01
Permit path: Tustin City Code Section 9232(b)(13) makes drive-thru facilities (drive-in and drive-thru) a conditional use in C1, and Sections 9233(b)(1), 9234(b)(1) and 9235(c)(1) carry that into C2, C3 and CG. Restaurants without a drive-thru are permitted by right (Section 9232(a)(2)(n)). Section 9232(a)(2)(a), however, lists banks "including those providing drive-thru service" as a permitted use, so ask Planning in writing whether a bank drive-up lane still needs the drive-thru CUP.
02
Stacking and parking: Section 9263 Table 1 requires a minimum 7-car stacking lane for any drive-through restaurant, Section 9263(i) makes each stacking space the length of a standard stall (19 feet under Table 2), and the final count and location are set during project review. Restaurants are parked at 1 space per 100 sq ft, take-out restaurants at 1 per 250 sq ft and banks at 1 per 250 sq ft. Inside a Large Retail Center (30,000 sq ft or more), Table 1 sets 4.5 spaces per 1,000 sq ft for the whole center, so confirm which standard the landlord's approvals used.
03
Service stations and car washes: both are conditional uses in C1 (Section 9232(b)(8) and (b)(25)). A service station site needs at least 10,000 sq ft, 100 feet of lot width, no more than 50% lot coverage, a 15-foot front setback and 8-foot side setbacks, and is parked at 1 space per pump island plus 4 per service bay. A full-serve car wash needs 10 spaces plus 10 per wash lane and a queue for 5 vehicles ahead of each lane (Table 1). Automotive repair shops are a CUP in C2 (Section 9233(b)(3)).
04
Setbacks and large parcels: Table 1 of Section 9230 sets no C1 setbacks except 10 feet on sides and 5 feet at the rear where the lot abuts an R district, and a 35-foot height limit; CG requires a 10-foot front setback and 15 feet at the rear where it abuts single-family homes. In CG, any otherwise permitted use on more than five acres of total parcel space needs a CUP (Section 9235(c)(2)), which can catch a new pad on a large CG shopping center parcel.
05
Specific plans: the City lists The District among its Tustin Legacy developments, and its Specific Plans page says nine specific plans govern land use in their areas, including Tustin Legacy, East Tustin and the Red Hill Avenue Specific Plan. A pad on Red Hill Avenue or in Tustin Legacy should be checked against that plan's drive-through rules before relying on the C1 and CG sections above.
06
Traffic data: the City's posted Average Daily Traffic table runs through 2018, the latest year it shows. Jamboree Road at the I-5 (66,700) carries more than five times the traffic of El Camino Real in front of The Market Place pads (12,500 between Tustin Ranch Road and Jamboree), so a pad's value there comes from freeway and Jamboree visibility rather than frontage traffic.
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.