Not lovin' it: Wilmette residents protest proposed McDonald's drive-thru
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Residents in a north suburb of Chicago have beef with a fast food giant.
They said they do not want a McDonald's drive-thru in their backyard, creating conflict between activists and the village zoning board, which so far has given McDonald's a green light.
CBS 2's Andrew Ramos has the story from Wilmette.
With their signs in hand, residents in Wilmette made their stance pretty clear: Happy Meals are not welcome.
"We do not need a fast food drive-thru here," said Wilmette resident Katheryn Bauer.
Rallying against a proposed McDonald's restaurant drive-thru on the corner of Skokie Boulevard and Old Glen View Road where a former Bakers Square restaurant once stood.
A growing number of residents formed a coalition, pushing back at the plans that they said would bring congestion and pollution to their neighborhood.
"They said essentially 750 cars a day will be here only for the drive-through which equates to more than 270,000 cars and vehicles a year that are here only for the drive-thru," said Wilmette resident David Levy.
And that activity of vehicles idling around the clock they said goes against the village's sustainability plan, signed into law in 2021 where it committed to reducing greenhouse gases and emissions.
Yet so far, the village's zoning board of appeals voted to approve McDonald's application to set up shop on the property with the only condition that the fast food restaurant closes at 10:00 p.m.
Once that precedent is set, every other fast-food restaurant is going to want a drive-thru in Wilmette," Bauer said.
"Anyone with a straight face that tells you that won't impact negatively our property values to someone you certainly don't wanna play poker with," Levy said.
The outcry is the loudest among those who live the closest to the property.
"We are down the street from the community pool, we have the rec center on that corner, and we have multiple elementary schools. And I just don't think they can guarantee our safety," added Wilmette resident Dana Bator.
Safety has long been a concern along the 40-mile-per-hour Skokie Boulevard where at least three accidents occurred in the area just last month, one of them outside where the McDonald's is expected to be built.
CBS 2 reached out to the McDonald's corporation to get a response about the growing concerns about its proposed Wilmette location. So far there's been no response.
The proposal and its opposition will all come to a head on January 9 when the village board takes up the matter at its first board meeting of 2024.