Can angry Logan neighbors push McDonald’s out of the drive-thru lane?
A week ago we posted the plan by the McDonald's Corp. to build a new restaurant near Gonzaga, on the corner of Hamilton and Augusta.
This week, the big noise is coming from that business's neighbors, who strongly oppose the decision to make the restaurant a drive-through only operation.
A number of citizens of the Logan Neighborhood are trying to rally opposition against the plan, which apparently could have been modified through the city's planning permitting process.
Here's the key statements sent to the media by the ad hoc neighbor group. At this point, the group continues trying to animate opposition so that McDonalds -- one of the country's largest businesses -- reconsiders its plan.
At the end of February it was brought to the attention of the Logan Neighborhood Planning Stakeholder Team that McDonald’s Corporation had requested a permit to build a drive-through only facility near Mission & Hamilton that is inconsistent with the neighborhood’s 2006 (center and corridors)designation (pedestrian-oriented) & current planning efforts. In early March 2014, the Logan Neighborhood Planning Stakeholder Group sent a letter to City Planning Director Scott Chesney requesting that he deny permitting McDonald’s project as proposed since it is inconsistent with long-term & current neighborhood planning efforts.
At a conference call at city hall in early March, which included seven McDonald’s corporation representatives, the neighborhood’s request to consider an alternate design fell on deaf ears. The McDonald’s corporate reps stated that they did not have to alter their design and that the neighborhood couldn’t make them do so.
McDonald’s corporation may not be required to coordinate with the neighborhood, but neighbors expected they would be willing to alter their design to fit in with other new developments on the Hamilton corridor. In the past seven years, other developments along the corridor have been consistent with the Logan neighborhood’s planning priorities, such as The Clementine Building and Gonzaga’s new retail/parking garage.
The Logan neighborhood asks McDonald’s corporation to be a good neighbor and build a facility that promotes pedestrian safety and activity that is consistent with the Logan neighborhood’s long-term and current efforts.