Restaurant officials agree to block vehicular access to new eatery
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Representatives of the McDonald's
fast-food chain bowed to neighborhood pressure Wednesday evening
and agreed to block vehicular access
from Early Street to a planned new
restaurant.
The company plans to build a new eatery with a drive-through window on a lot fronting on St Francis Drive. "We will close off Early Street," Jimmy Lopez of Dallas, the McDonald's area construction manager told members of the Don Diego Neighborhood Association. That concession won applause from about 30 people gathered at Wild Oats Community Room. Several at the meeting sald a driveway on Early Street would result in more traffic and ruin their quiet, nearby neighborhood. McDonald's still plans to allow for pedestrian access from Early Street, something to which the neighbors didn't object. The restaurant chain has submitted to the city plans for a 39OO-square-foot restaurant on St Francis Drive near the Cerrillos Road intersection. The project would replace an existing McDonald's on Cerrillos Road just south of Don DIego Avenue, which would be razed. At the 1.32-acre new site, an existing buildingmost recently occupied by Asado Charcoal Grill and J.B. Family Restaurants would be torn down to make way for the new McDonalds. Lopez said the company would be sensitive to an old cemetery on Early Street, owned by Our Lady of Guadelupe Church. After consulting with the church and city officials, he said, "I will take a wall into consideration. We will work something out." Another McDonald's official, area real-estate manager Darren Sheperd of Dallas, said of the deal worked out with the neighbors: "If these people feel like this is the best for their neighborhood, then it's the best". Andres Zamora, the local McDonald's franchise operator, said he was "very happy" with the arrangement for his new restaurant, which would operate 24 hours a day. City Councilor Patty Bushee, who attended the meeting, thanked McDonald's officials. She also expressed appreciation that the erististing restaurant on upper Cerrillos Road would be eliminated, potentially offering more parking space to the adjoining Whole Foods supermarket. Whole Foods suffers chronic parking problems. One issue that didn't come up at Wednesdays meeting is the fate of Early Street Studios, a ballet school opened by Kim Caffrey in a Qonset Hut on the new McDonald's site. Caffrey tried to covince her landlord, California resident John Stauffer, to allow her to remain on the property. But Stauffer has served an eviction notice. McDonald's offcials declined to comment on Caffrey's pending eviction from the Quonset hut, which apparently will be removed. The McDonalds plan is scheduled for consideration by the city's Business Capital District Design Review Comittee on April 13. |