After controversy, the residents’ association of a wealthy neighborhood near Chicago, Illinois, rejected a proposal for McDonald’s, a popular fast-food chain in the United States, to open a store.
According to Chicago media on the 11th, the operating committee of Wilmette, a northern suburban city of Chicago, decided the previous day not to approve the plan to open the ‘first Wilmette store’ that giant McDonald’s was planning to build on the site of an empty stand-alone building at the intersection of the main road.
Regarding the refusal to enter the store, the Wilmette Management Committee said, “This decision was made after carefully reviewing residents’ opinions and McDonald’s plans.” The location has remained vacant since Bakers Square, a casual restaurant chain that has been around since the 1990s, closed in April 2019. The Chicago Tribune reported that the north, east, and west are surrounded by residential areas, and only the south borders the commercial district.
McDonald’s planned to open a store here with a ‘drive-thru’ facility where people could buy food while in their car, but residents protested and started a petition to oppose the store’s opening.
Residents say that drive-through McDonald’s stores not only worsen the residential environment by increasing traffic, noise, and exhaust gases, but also attract low-income people from other areas, raising safety concerns. “McDonald’s is installing a special facility called a drive-through.”
“It does not even meet the standards for ‘permission for change of use’ required,” he claimed. They said, “As a result of the survey, McDonald’s makes an average of 1,000 sales a day, of which 700 to 800 are drive-through,” and “Based on business hours from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., one vehicle per minute. “It’s like carrying this out,” he added.
In addition, Wilmette Village emphasized that, through an ordinance enacted in 2021, it has limited the opening of retail businesses that help residents in their daily lives in the area. Some have argued that McDonald’s is not a facility for Wilmette residents and could harm the neighborhood atmosphere.
Wilmette, a Lake Michigan town with a population of 28,000 located about 30km north of downtown Chicago, is one of Illinois’ wealthy residences, with a median income of $180,000 and a median home price of 780,000. It costs 7,000 dollars and 80.9% of the population is white.
McDonald’s, headquartered in Chicago, operates about 13,500 stores in the United States, with 645 stores in Illinois, or 1 for every 19,650 people.