Note: The City Planning Commission meeting is set for 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in the City Council Chambers on the third floor of Cedar Rapids City Hall, 101 First St. SE.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Neighbors of a proposed McDonald’s along Mount Vernon Road SE are gathering signatures to oppose rezoning for the fast-food chain.
The City Planning Commission will consider a request to rezone property at 725 and 803 35th St. and 720 34th St. SE to accommodate a 4,500-square-foot restaurant with a drive-through and parking lot, and to allow a major design exception for the three properties and for 3414 Mt. Vernon Rd. SE, where a Community Savings Bank is located.
Currently, the bank location would allow the proposed use on the site, but the other properties would need to be rezoned from T-R1 (Traditional Residential Single Unit) to T-MC (Traditional Mixed Use Center) and two duplexes on 35th Street would be demolished to make way for parking.
Two duplexes on 35th Street SE would be demolished for parking under the proposal for a McDonald’s on Mount Vernon Road. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The major design exception would accommodate a drive-through lane to wrap around the building along Mount Vernon Road and 35th Street SE.
Access would be both on 34th and 35th streets and the restaurant would operate 24 hours daily.
Single family homes line 35th Street near the proposed McDonald’s, and Erskine Elementary School is just two blocks away, at 600 36th St. SE, with the Vernon Village True Value hardware store across the street at 3501 Mt. Vernon Rd. SE.
Neighbors cite possible increases in traffic, congestion, odor and noise; risk to the safety of children walking to school and other negative impacts on the quality of life for the neighborhood, and have been gathering petition signatures to oppose the proposal.
Erskine Elementary School is located just two blocks away from the proposed McDonald’s. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Some have pointed to a vacant McDonald’s at 1530 First Ave. NE, which has remained closed since 2020, as evidence of what could happen in the future when the chain disallows other restaurants in former locations.
Others have cited what appears to be a disconnect between the proposal and the city’s Mount Vernon Road Corridor Action Plan, adopted in 2017 after extensive public input.
Top action items for the plan were to restrict or prohibit uses not considered neighborhood friendly, and to establish design and use standards that support redevelopment on smaller lots, and promote buildings that are in scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
A Burger King is located several blocks away at 3030 Mt. Vernon Rd. SE, but the McDonald’s proposal would situate parking next to existing homes, extending the mixed-use zoning into a residential area.
Once a property is rezoned, any use consistent with the zoning would be permitted.
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