McDonald's Drive-Thru Special Use Heads To Wilmette Village Board

WILMETTE, IL — Wilmette residents who live near the corner of Skokie Boulevard and Old Glenview Road are not loving the idea of a drive-thru in their backyards.

These neighbors will not be having a happy meal Tuesday night if village trustees give McDonald's a green light to open Wilmette's first drive-thru fast food restaurant.

The fast food chain is currently under contract to purchase the property at 200 Skokie Blvd., which was a Baker's Square restaurant for decades prior to its sudden closing nearly five years ago.

The area is zoned "Neighborhood Retail," which allows for drive-thrus and counter-service restaurants with a special use permit. A full-service or specialty restaurant would not require such a permit, according to the village's zoning code.

Last month, the Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-3 to recommend the Village Board approve McDonald's permit requests as long as they close at 10 p.m. instead of 1:30 a.m., as company representatives had sought.

Village officials have granted all but one of the requests they received for drive-thrus at pharmacies and banks, as well as the 2005 request for the Starbucks drive-thru at 3520 Lake Ave., according to a report prepared for the board by Deputy Director of Community Development Lisa Roberts. A 1985 request for a restaurant with a drive-thru restaurant at 825 Green Bay Road was rejected.

Wilmette residents who have weighed in on the project have been overwhelming against it.

Assistant Director for Community Development Lucas Sivertsen said last summer that village staff met with neighbors in November 2022 to get their thoughts on the proposal.

Staff shared the "challenges of getting neighborhood support" following that meeting. Last summer, they held a similar discussion about the "potential adverse impacts of a drive-thru directly adjacent to residential properties," according to Sivertsen.

Hundreds of residents have signed a petition against the McDonald's proposal, all but one who spoke at last month's zoning board meeting opposed it and more than a dozen gathered outside the site Wednesday morning to protest it. They cite the pollution, noise, traffic, safety and potential harm to their property values.

The owner of the site of the vacant restaurant is identified in Cook County records as SFH NO 4 LCC, with an address at an attorney's office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The estimated market value of the location's two parcels is about $1.4 million, according to the county assessor's office.

McDonald's attorneys pointed out the inclusion of a drive-thru as a potential special use in a zoning district means village lawmakers have expressly determined it is compatible for a district.

"Consequently, a special use may not be denied on the grounds that the use is not in harmony with the surrounding neighborhood," according to a letter from Orland Park attorney Jim Olguin's firm.

The Wilmette Village Board is due to consider whether McDonald's meetings the village's standards for special use permits at its Tuesday evening meeting.