Plans to open a state of the art McDonald’s restaurant on Skokie Blvd in Wilmette are on the back burner after the Wilmette Village Board voted unanimously to deny the fast food giant the zoning relief it needed for a drive thru lane at the site.
“I will not be supporting this,” Village Board Senta Plunkett, said during the board’s Jan. 9 meeting. “I do not believe that this site can handle the high volume drive thru that is described here. This is probably the most intense volume drive thru you could have so I do not think that is appropriate on this site.”
The 6 to 0 vote was greeted with cheers and applause from dozens of residents at the meeting who had organized against giving the restaurant chain the zoning relief it was seeking to open in the 200 block of Skokie Blvd.
Many who addressed the board at the Jan. 9 meeting said a drive thru lane would create traffic snarls on Skokie Blvd, create light and noise pollution and potential safety hazards at nearby intersection as vehicles sped in and out of the restaurant parking lot and drive thru. They also said idling vehicles would spew thousands of pounds of exhaust fumes into the air every year and that the restaurant is generally a bad fit for the area because it abuts residential neighborhoods. A memo submitted by McDonald’s to the village said the restaurant drive thru lanes could attract 800 vehicles a day.
“It does seem clear there are a number of environmental concerns related to the McDonald’s project especially but not limited to the large number of cars that will idle daily in the drive thru lanes,” Go Green Wilmette member Beth Drucker told the board. “There is no doubt that this will negatively impact air quality at least in the immediate neighborhood if not the whole village.”
McDonald’s could still open on the site without a drive thru. But it would still need zoning variances and to date the company has not expressed interest in opening without the drive thru, village staff said.
Late last year the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4 to 3 to recommend approval of the McDonald’s application with a condition that the restaurant close at 10 p.m. Village trustees expressed further concerns about the proposal.
“Will it be safe?” asked trustee Gerry Smith. “I think the location could be a restaurant for the community, but a drive thru just has such risks. This is not the right opportunity in the right location. This is not the right corner for McDonald’s.”
But long time Wilmette resident Mark Miller told the board he believes the McDonald’s would be great for the community.
“I like Big Macs,” he said. “I like Quarter Pounders with cheese. I like Egg McMuffins. I like the idea that I’ll be able to drive up there and get a cup of coffee.”
He also argued the restaurant could give some of the village’s younger residents a place to work.
“It’ll be great for jobs,” he added. “Look at kids at New Trier, Loyola and Regina. I expect a lot of jobs for those kids. We want new buildings in Wilmette. We want commerce.”
The site was home to a Bakers Square restaurant before it suddenly closed in 2019. Last year a proposal to build a new restaurant on the site themed on the movie “Caddyshack” was scrapped.
“It doesn’t seem to me that a number of the special use standards are met in this case,” trustee Gina Kennedy said. “While drive thrus might be appropriate in some places … this is a different kind of drive thru. A drive thru with this kind of volume and this kind of traffic and this kind of potential for disrupting the neighborhood is not appropriate.”
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.