HADLEY — Plans for bringing a 7 Brew Coffee drive-thru shop to the edge of the Mountain Farms Mall parking lot continues to move forward, with a main worry from Planning Board members centered on the possible impacts on the shopping center’s perimeter road.

“I’m concerned about the congestion,” Planning Board member Mark Dunn said during Tuesday’s site plan review hearing, pointing to the three entrances and three exits for the business. “It’s going to be a vehicular headache there.”

“My concern is the access,” said Planning Board member Joseph Zgrodnik, suggesting that an agreement might be needed between the coffee shop and mall management.

While the parcel on which the 525-square-foot coffee shop building would be placed is owned by the neighboring Jiffy Lube, 347 Russell St., customers would access the drive-thru lanes via the mall’s perimeter road.

Planning Board Chairman James Maksimsoki and Planning Board Clerk William Dwyer both said how vehicles enter the coffee shop is a business decision.

“That can be a very congested spot, because that’s one of the primary connectors to the exit,” Dwyer said. “On a busy day, traffic is backed up fairly significantly.”

But as long as town or state roads aren’t affected, and the safety of those in the parking lot are not compromised, planners appeared poised to approve the plans.

“We’d like to try to be a good neighbor and to make it as orderly as we can,” said Marcus Puttuck, the civil engineer working on the project.

He explained that the model for the business is people staying in their vehicles, with the building a service area for employees, along with a small storage building nearby with a cooler inside, and workers taking orders while standing outside.

“They have greeters essentially who take your order,” Puttuck said, and then another person comes out from the building with the drink.

“There are several people you will interact with as you make your way through the business and the drive-through aisles,” Puttuck said.

Jiffy Lube representative Mitchell Markay acknowledged that conversations are taking place about the challenges of the site. “The access is difficult,” Markay said.

Puttuck said a landscaped lawn and bushes would be on the site, with screening near the dumpster and a decorative stone.

Manraj Parmar, a Connecticut franchisee who already is bringing two locations to that state, said 7 Brew will be beverage only, with 20,000 combinations of drinks available, for children and adults, with smoothies, energy drinks, lemonades and teas.

The project returns to the board June 3, either for a continuation of the hearing or to start a new hearing. The site plan review needs support from four of the five members for approval. A fifth member of the board who will be elected at the May 20 town election wouldn’t be able to vote on the plans if the hearing doesn’t start over.

Before returning in a month, there will be consultation with Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel about access to the site for fire trucks, a peer review with another civil engineer that will also be used by the Conservation Commission for its approvals and a presentation of designs of the externally illuminated signs.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.