LITTLE ROCK — A McDonald’s restaurant approved by city directors for one of Little Rock’s busiest intersections won’t break ground until at least next year, the franchise owner said after it was approved Monday.
Eliecer Palacios, who owns two McDonald’s in LittleRock, said he didn’t have a start date as yet for his newest restaurant near University Avenue and Markham Street where a vacant Bennigans now stands.
When Palacios does break ground, he will be using a prototype that McDonald’s officials said has been built in only two other locations.Designed with a “retro” style featuring early McDonald’s arches and glass walls, the building will be one of the first to offer two pickup windows that restaurant representatives said will cut down on the wait for drive-through customers.
On Monday, city directors weighed concerns overincreased traffic at the intersection against the improvements to Markham Street that the developer will build.
After an hour-long discussion, city directors voted in favor of the redevelopment. Plans call for a center turn lane on Markham Street from University Avenue west to near the entrance of a busyChick-fil-A restaurant.
“You must consider the traffic issues there,” said Nell Matthews, a Briarwood neighborhood resident who told city directors she was pleased with redevelopment in the area but remained concerned about gridlock.
Vehicles will enter the Mc-Donald’s through a driveway off University Avenue that’s within 150 feet of the intersection - something the city no longer allows but is still in use because it’s an existing driveway.
There are also two existing turn lanes onto University Avenue, which prompted Vice Mayor Dean Kumpuris to guess there will be accidents involving drivers making last-minute turns into McDonald’s.
“It really worries me that we’re going to create a real monster,” said Kumpuris, who along with City Director Stacy Hurst, voted against the proposal that was up for appeal after it failed at the Planning Commission.
Hurst said she was concerned that the developer’s traffic model did not match the city’s traffic model, even though the two used the same software program. The two traffic engineers said they didn’t know who was wrong, and thought it had to be a matter of human error on someone’s part.
The city’s model showed the restaurant attracting more cars that would back up into the street and the developer’smodel showed the new drivethrough design handling all the traffic without any problems.
The restaurant expects to share driveways as well as parking with the adjacent Baker Building - with restaurant-goers driving through the building’s parking lot to access the McDonald’s.
The complicated parking situation will likely lead the owners of the Baker Building to sell its corner lot to McDonald’s, said Hank Kelley, a representative for the building’s owners.
While that interested city directors, Mayor Mark Stodola said what happened nextdoor could not be taken into consideration.
Palacios said the new location represented a $4 million development for him and that 100 people would be hired. The restaurant’s starting pay will be $7.50 an hour, he said, adding that more experienced people could make more.
City directors approved the development but unanimously rejected a rezoning request for a Team Clean Carwash at 14919 Cantrell Road opposed by surrounding residents.
The developer, Jonesboro Carwash, included drainage fixes that would relieve flooding in a nearby neighborhood,but residents downstream said they were concerned about flooding and urged the city to stick to its Highway 10 Design Overlay District plan that called for quiet office use on the lot.
At the same meeting - and without discussion - city directors approved signing the final paperwork needed to sell Ray Winder Field. The city agreed two years ago to sell the former Arkansas Travelers stadium to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciencefor $1.3 million.
The medical school plans to raze the stadium and use the property for parking. The proceeds from the sale are supposed to go toward improvements at War Memorial Park.
City directors also deferred discussion on changes to the curfew law for minors until their Oct. 18 board meeting. City Manager Bruce Moore said the delay came at the request of City Director Erma Hendrix.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/05/2011