CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Even as neighbors quietly celebrated the initial rejection of a plan that would place a McDonald’s within feet of their homes, they looked to the next round in front of the Cedar Rapids City Council.
“It’s not over yet,” Bruce Abernathy warned as more than a dozen residents left the Dec. 4, 2025, City Planning Commission meeting. “You never know, but it’s a start.”
Abernathy, who lives on 35th Street SE, not far from the site of the proposed McDonald’s on Mount Vernon Road SE, turned in about 100 petition signatures to the city, opposing the plan.
Related: Cedar Rapids neighbors oppose McDonald’s rezoning
Beth Peters speaks during the Dec. 4, 2025, City Planning Commission meeting at Cedar Rapids City Hall. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Seven area residents spoke out at Thursday’s meeting against rezoning 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 currently located.
The bank site is already zoned to allow a fast-food restaurant or other businesses, but the other properties would need to be rezoned from T-R1 (Traditional Residential Single Unit) to T-MC (Traditional Mixed Use Center) to make way for parking and for access points from the street.
Tim Crowder, regional construction manager for McDonald’s, said the fast-food enterprise doesn’t stipulate operating hours for their restaurants, after commission chairman Jim Halverson asked if the business would operate 24 hours daily.
Although the commission was considering the rezoning, rather than the business plan, members seemed to find those operating hours unpalatable, along with a further encroachment into the residential neighborhood and other factors. They ultimately voted unanimously against the request.
Before the vote, some of the neighbors took issue with the plan’s proposal to demolish two duplexes on 35th Street, with the resulting land used for parking.
“People will be displaced from their homes, so we can have another strip of concrete,” said Abby Long, adding that the proposal doesn’t align with the Mount Vernon Road Corridor Action Plan.
One of the duplexes that would be demolished to make way for parking for McDonald’s is seen Dec. 1, 2025, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Carl Lehmkuhl, one of the duplex residents, said he was caught off-guard by the proposal.
“We didn’t know anything about it,” he said, until a neighbor informed him of the plan.
Laura Garcia, who lives nearby on Memorial Drive SE, noted that the proposal disregards the city’s stated goal to increase affordable housing, while her husband, Vern Garcia, said the duplexes are exactly the type of housing the city has been incentivizing.
Beth Peters, whose home on 35th Street would be within 200 feet of the McDonald’s, cited concerns with 24-hour noise from the drive-through speakers, lights, odor, trash, and safety risks for pedestrians and cyclists with probable congestion on the residential street.
“Let’s keep 35th Street a neighborhood, not a fast-food corridor,” said Peters, who has lived in her home for nine years, but plans to move if the proposal advances.
Homes line 35th Street SE, near the proposed location of a McDonald’s restaurant. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Others noted safety concerns for students walking to Erskine Elementary School, just two blocks away, and Stacie Johnson, a real estate agent who is closing on a nearby home, asked how the city would compensate the neighbors.
“A 24-hour business model drives traffic to the neighborhood,” said Johnson, who lived in an apartment behind another fast-food restaurant while attending Coe College. “And patrons can also deteriorate a neighborhood.”
Johnson also questioned how the city could justify tearing down affordable housing.
Crowder said he didn’t think lighting or noise would be a problem for the neighbors, with advancements in technology.
The commission, which serves as a recommending body for the City Council, tabled the major design exception request after the seven members present voted against the rezoning.
Crowder said after the meeting that he would confer with his team before deciding what the next steps might be for McDonald’s.
The proposal is set to go before the Cedar Rapids City Council for a public hearing on Jan. 27, 2026. Even with the commission’s unanimous vote against the rezoning, the council can make their own decision on the proposal.
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