Super-sized Crowd Turns Out for McDonald's Presentation

A super-sized crowd turned out for Wednesday’s Newtown Township Supervisors meeting to hear a presentation on a proposed McDonald’s at Village of Newtown East.

More than 50 people filled the meeting room to learn more about the proposal and express their thoughts and concerns. Many residents were from Cliveden Estates, which is across the street from the site of the potential fast food chain.

McDonald’s has announced that they hope to put a restaurant on the site of Office Place East, a building adjacent to Wachovia Bank. However, the fast food chain has not yet filed a formal land development application with the township.

The majority of the public comment during Wednesday night’s meeting was in opposition to the proposal for a 3,900-square-foot McDonald’s with a drive-through window. Residents said they fear the fast food restaurant will bring traffic, parking issues, noise, and trash to the area.

Representatives from Pennoni Associates, which presented a traffic study of the shopping center on behalf of the potential applicant, said a four-way stop is needed at West Road and South Eagle Road. If that measure is taken, Pennoni engineers say traffic levels could improve over present conditions even with a McDonald’s in the area.

But residents weren’t buying it.

“When you’re the one sitting behind the wheel waiting to make that turn on South Eagle Road, it’s terrible. A four-way stop isn’t going to make things safer,” said Michelle Goldberg, who added that the decision to allow a McDonald’s will have consequences for years to come.

“Let’s think really hard before we put ourselves through that and think really hard where we want to be in five or 10 years -- it's not with a McDonald’s,” Goldberg said.

Kathleen McAndrews said she believes McDonald’s will cause hardship on not only the neighboring residents but also the local businesses. “We would like to support our small businesses by shopping in their stores, but this may not be possible if there’s no parking. How can small businesses in Newtown survive with high rent, traffic, and parking issues?"

But others disagreed. One Wrightstown Township resident said he wished McDonald’s would come to his neighborhood.

However, residents who live close to the proposal were not enthusiastic. Robert Thomas, who lives in Cliveden facing Durham Road, said every night he hears traffic, noise, and “teenagers driving around with their music blasting.  I can’t stand it.  Right now my quality of life stinks with all the noise and I can’t imagine adding another restaurant.”

Others oppose the McDonald’s for reasons beyond traffic and noise issues.

“We have an obesity epidemic in this country. That’s very sad for our children,” said resident Laurie Samuels. “McDonald’s does not add to the value of our community. They promote unhealthy food and use target advertising on children and teens.”

Kathy Kingston, who has worked for McDonald’s for more than 35 years, said the restaurant is a good neighbor and a valuable asset to the community. “Our reputation as good neighbors and citizens in the community is not to be disputed.”

Once public comment wrapped up, board members provided their assessment of the proposal.  Many concurred with the residents and expressed concerns about the location.

Cheers erupted when supervisor Matthew Benchener said the location wasn’t right. Benchener said, while he believes it’s important for Newtown to be business friendly, it shouldn’t come at the expense of residents’ quality of life.

Further, he said, the township may not reap substantial benefits even if McDonald’s were to open up in Newtown. “I want to dispel the myth that this would be a cash cow for the township,” Benchener said.

Phillip Calabro said he agreed that Office Place East is not the proper location for a McDonald’s.

“Would I like to see a McDonald's somewhere in Newtown? Sure. They do bring positive things to the community but I think in this case, it’s an area that is so condensed and inundated with traffic," Calabro said.