Area McDonald’s tests design guidelines

June Casagrande

Design guidelines approved about three years ago for this stretch of

Coast Highway got their first test on Thursday when the Planning

Commission approved a plan to level and then rebuild the area

McDonald’s.

The commission voted 6 to 1 to approve the company’s plans to

transform the restaurant at 700 E. Coast Highway and give it a

nautical theme, similar to some of the gray buildings next to Josh

Slocum’s.

The project had to come before the Planning Commission several

times while commissioners reviewed details, the last and most

difficult of which was the building’s roof. Unlike in most parts of

town, where aesthetic rules refer mainly to a building’s exterior

walls, in Mariner’s Mile, rooftops must also be attractive because

some neighborhoods look directly down onto them.

Planning commissioners wanted the building to have a “pitched” or

slanted roof, like ones on many houses. But company representatives

said that would be too expensive because of ventilation needs for the

kitchen equipment and other machinery.

Ed Selich cast the dissenting vote on the project because, he

said, he was holding out hope for the pitched roof.

“It’s a great project, and it’s going to be really attractive,”

Selich said. “I was just hoping to it could be a little better. But

it will already be much better than what’s there.”

The new McDonald’s building will have a flat roof with parapets to

hide mechanical equipment from ground-level view and rooftop

structures to hide the equipment from bird’s-eye view as well. It

will have gray horizontal siding panels and paned windows framed in

white. A new retaining wall will have a stone veneer, and the

McDonald’s trademark golden arches will only be a part of one small

sign instead of the large logo at most of the company’s restaurants.

The project is the first major work in the area since the City

Council approved the Mariner’s Mile Strategic Vision and Design

Framework and the Zoning Ordinance in October 2000. The framework

does not require a nautical theme for new buildings in the area, but

encourages color schemes and landscaping consistent with the

Mariner’s style.