Lakeview residents oppose proposed McDonald's site

It was a crowded house at the North Glenmore Park community centreWednesday night where hundreds of people from the surrounding area lined up tosee exactly what McDonald's Canada is proposing to buildin theirneighbourhood.

"Itwould be a blight on that corner. It's not very nice to look at, the smell from the restaurant, the increased traffic," said Lakeview residentGlenn Geddes.

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The fast-food chain wants to build a 24-hour restaurant with adual-lane drive-thruat the site of a former gas station at the corner of 63rd Avenue andCrowchildTrail S.W., inLakeviewPlaza.

Itfirst proposed to build a restaurant at this locationin August, 2014.

At that time, the community petitioned against it because of concerns about increased traffic. In factmany people, likeRon Lewis, thought the project was dead.

"This surprised me the other day to all of a sudden see in my mail box an open house invite to a proposed Mcdonald's," he said.

The company presented its latest renderings of the fast food restaurant. It also provided the results ofa recently commissioned traffic study, which purported to showthe restaurant would haveminimal impact.

Alan Summers has lived in the community for 10years. He lives right across the street from the proposed site.

"It doesn't matter how much it is. There is going to be more traffic ... they'regoing to be going through my area, rightin front of my house, more and more and more all the time," he said.

Summer says there are already traffic problems in the community. Wheneverthere aretie-upsonGlenmoreTrail,commuters cut throughLakeview, making U-turnsto get around the traffic jam.

Summers, and others, say their oppositionhas nothing to do with the company itself, just the traffic.

"McDonald's does a lot of really good things, likewith their Ronald McDonald houses, and stuff like that. They give a lot back to charity and stuff. It'sjust, thisis not the right place to do it."

According to theLakeviewCommunity Association'sFacebookpage, the company heldthe open house to get feedback from residentsbefore it applies for a city development permit.

No one from the company was available to do an interview.