On December 1, 2010, the Oakland Planning Commission approved plans for rebuilding the McDonald's fast food restaurant at 4514 Telegraph Avenue in the Temescal district. Local residents Christopher Waters and Rebecca Saltzman pulled together an appeal on IndiGoGO and raised over $1,400 to appeal the decision.

What was the issue?  In their words: "The project as approved would be an even more auto-centric building than the existing structure. The building meets neither Telegraph Avenue nor 45th Street.  Instead, the drive-through lane will run almost the entire length of the Telegraph Avenue side of the lot.  This means the building is separated from the sidewalk by the drive-through lane.  The pedestrian entrance will be at the back of the building opposite the Telegraph Avenue side.  Expanding the drive-through facilities and hours will entrench the dominance of automobiles in this area and serve as a deterrent to long-term revitalization goals.

Commissioner Madeleine Zayas-Mart, who cast one of the two dissenting votes at Planning Commission, rightly pointed out that it is a false choice when we are told we have to choose between jobs and good urban design.

City Staff decided that the small scale of this project did not require a separate design review process.  This short-circuited the community input process, leaving the only option an appeal to City Council.  The cost of an appeal is 1,351.92 and it must be filed by 4:00pm on Monday, December 13.

The project developers met with representatives of the Temescal Business Improvement District, AC Transit, advocacy groups ULTRA and STAND, and City Council member Jane Brunner. There was little, if any, apparent effort to engage the actual stakeholders -- the residents of the area -- in this proposal.

At Planning Commission last week the project representatives showed the Planning Commissioners at least 11 different configurations of the project, some of which had the building meeting the sidewalk. However, they explained that none of those options were the most efficient way to move cars through the drive-through. The entire discussion of the design focused on the efficient movement of cars through the site. At the very bottom of the priority list were pedestrians along Telegraph Avenue."

Questions Waters and Saltzman raise include the following:

• Does McDonald's have a Conditional Use Permit for a 24-hour drive-through? How did they get around the requirement that a drive-in restaurant has to be a certain distance from a primary/middle school? Extension of the drive-through hours was granted without any real rationale or discussion. If this were new construction, no drive-through, let alone a 24-hour drive-through, would be granted for such a project.
• There should be citywide requirements for drive-through restaurants that would prevent designs like this one from getting through design review in the first place.
•  The drive-through circulation should be improved but should remain at the rear of the lot, rather than being moved closer to Telegraph Avenue, as the project was approved.  The Planning Commission's reasoning was that moving the drive-through closer to Telegraph Avenue lessens impact on the community by moving it away from the park/playground that abuts the rear of the lot. This sounds good on paper, but is patently false. The current drive-through is actually relatively unobtrusive because it is at the rear of the lot. The "park/playground" is in reality left field of the adjacent baseball field, and there is a 6 to 8 foot wall between the field and the McDonald's lot. The current drive-through might bother the left fielder on game days; but fronting Telegraph Avenue, it will bother anyone walking by.
•  Did the Planning Commission do due diligence in the design review process?  More time is needed for community input, and to assess potential impact on the neighborhood.

25 people donated an average of $25 to raise the $1,351.92 cost of the appeal filing.  Waters and Saltzman have promised alert the community when the item will come before the City Council.