After hearing concerns from several neighborhood residents about noise, traffic and other issues, the Cedar Rapids Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday, Dec. 4 to recommend denial of a rezoning request for a proposed new McDonald’s restaurant along Mount Vernon Road SE.
The proposal calls for a new McDonald’s restaurant just north of Mount Vernon Road, between 34th and 35th streets.
The current Community Savings Bank building at 3414 Mount Vernon Rd SE would be demolished for the project, as the bank is moving to a new location in the Cedar River Tower in downtown Cedar Rapids. Two nearby duplexes would also be demolished.
The site plan for the project involves an inverted L-shaped lot layout, wrapping around a former Little Caesar’s restaurant and an Anytime Fitness location along 34th Street, both of which would remain and are not part of the proposal.
Entrances to the McDonald’s property would come from 34th and 35th Streets, with the restaurant building itself located closer to Mount Vernon Road.
Several area residents shared their opposition to the plan at Thursday’s meeting, raising issues from pedestrian safety (particularly with the site’s close proximity to Erskine Elementary School just to the north), higher traffic volumes and proximity to a residential neighborhood, to the loss of the two duplexes, increased noise and litter.
Beth Peters, who said she was speaking on behalf of several neighborhood residents, said her concerns focused on children walking through the area from nearby Dalewood Drive SE.
“Many of my neighbors believe that once this commercial zoning is introduced into a residential block, reducing the residential community and making it more commercial, it rarely stops with just one business,” she said. “We love our little slice of Cedar Rapids because it is stable, quiet, safe and it’s affordable.”
Vern Garcia, who said he lives on nearby Memorial Drive SE, said that based on the site plan, the McDonald’s operation would cover more than 1.5 acres – one-third larger than the largest current Cedar Rapids-area McDonald’s.
“The two duplexes that are on that land are exactly the kind of housing that the city council incentivized four years ago,” he said. “I suspect this proposal has much more to do with getting a bunch of real estate together for a corporate landlord than operational necessity for a burger joint.”
A speaker who only identified herself as Abby, who said she lived on Sixth Street SE, said the proposal doesn’t align with the Mount Vernon Road Corridor Action Plan approved by the city council.
“If it’s approved, I’m concerned about a loss of trust that the city will honor action plans that we spend the time and energy to create, if we’re willing to look past the Corridor Action Plan and normalize displacing families,” she said. “Regardless of what is built here, it’s a blatant statement from Cedar Rapids that we will prioritize making space for billionaires and corporations before our own neighbors, residents and community members.”
Another speaker, local real estate agent Stacie Johnson, told the commission she “may or may not” become the new owner of a home at 801 36th St. SE, depending on the outcome of Thursday’s meeting.
She commented on the possibility of the restaurant operating 24 hours a day, an option that McDonald’s regional construction manager Tim Crowder said was typically left to the restaurant franchisee’s discretion.
“I can tell you there are many better places down Mount Vernon Road to place this,” she said. “There are enough derelict buildings, empty parking lots and run-down apartment buildings that could very easily be excellent locations for this … I’d like to know what the actual benefits are to the neighborhood, and if there are none, I’d like to know how you’re going to compensate the neighbors who are going to take a major hit to their property values and also their right to quiet enjoyment, which was theirs when they purchased the property and is a fundamental tenant of real estate ownership.”
Commission members expressed similar reservations about the plan, including its intrusion into the nearby neighborhood.
“If the proposal imagined the former Little Caesar’s there, if it was just that corner, this would be a slam dunk,” commissioner Bo Brock said. “They could just keep the traffic right in there, and this would be a no-brainer. But then I see this. In the name of efficiency, this doesn’t strike me as a very efficient use of the land.”
“If it were up against Mount Vernon Road, it would be much easier and more palatable,” commissioner Samantha Dahlby added. “It feels like sprawl within a small space to me. It’s not fitting with me. I think the conditions (would) help there a little bit. But I don’t know that it gets over my heartache on some of the other things.”
The commission’s recommendation, which is not binding, now proceeds to the Cedar Rapids City Council, which is slated to formally consider the request after a public hearing at its meeting Jan. 27, 2026, followed by potential second and third readings of a rezoning ordinance in February.
