A NO BRAINER

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28)

Some weeks ago now Framingham Selectman Dennis Giombetti was in front of me at the checkout line in Framingham’s Staples store. I greeted him and told him I sometimes watch the Framingham Selectmen’s meetings on local cable. He looked at me incredulous and replied, “You watch THAT! You need to get a life!” Well, about the only thing geekier than watching a Framingham’s Selectmen’s meeting is watching a Framingham Planning Board meeting, and I’m known to do that, too! In fact, I watched quite a bit of Thursday night’s Planning Board meeting.

I stuck with it because I was interested that several representatives of the McDonald’s Corporation were before the Planning Board to discuss a planned extensive rebuilding and upgrading of the McDonald’s located at Route 30 and Caldor Road in Framingham. I believe that was the first McDonald’s in Framingham. It’s corporately owned and not a franchised location (like Route 126 in Ashland, for instance). If my friend D.C.M. is reading this he’s laughing his head off because 25 years ago or more I used to buy a lot of my lunches at McDonald’s. Today, I’m most likely to buy a breakfast a McDonald’s. (The Green Mountain coffee they sell exclusively in New England is better than D.D.!)
The drive thru and parking configuration at the Route 30 McDonald’s is a mess. One reason for that is around 20 years ago, the state reconstructed Route 30 in that part of Town and made it a divided highway. At that time, McDonald’s had to reconfigure its drive thru and parking into a very convoluted pattern it still uses today.

McDonald’s plans to gut that building and reconstruct it, adding a play area, and making it look more like their most modern restaurants. They also plan to greatly improve the parking and drive thru. I want to word what I’m about to say about the Planning Board carefully. I often disagree with the Planning Board, but I DO want to stress that they’re all very intelligent and hard working people. That goes especially for the current Planning Board Chair, Ms. Carol Spack, who has got to be the most intelligent and classy person currently working in Framingham government. I guess the problem with the Planning Board, and some of the Selectmen, for that matter, is they get caught up in nit picky government bureaucracy and idealism and can be very unfriendly and frustrating to local businesses. (Remember, for example, the piece I wrote about the Framingham Sign By-Law a few weeks ago?!) Amazingly, the Framingham Planning Board (mostly) DIDN’T like McDonald’s plans! They wanted a parking lot and drive thru which would NOT pose ANY danger or ANY inconvenience to ANY pedestrian! The McDonald’s folks tried to tell them that’s totally unrealistic but they didn’t care. The Planning Board also would like McDonald’s to move their building to the back far corner of their property, as far from the streets as possible. The McDonald’s folks stressed the importance of VISIBILITY for impulse buyers. I’m not sure if the Planning Board “bought” that one. I frankly don’t think the Planning Board (with the exception of legal advisor Jay Grande) is even particularly crazy about them HAVING a drive thru! (I think it was also the Planning Board that made Dunkin Donuts on Route 9 East near the Southboro line spell drive thru as “DRIVE THROUGH” on their sign!)

In my humble opinion, one of the McDonald’s representatives made a BIG mistake. She talked about the millions of dollars McDonald’s wants to spend to improve this site and that to make it financially worthwhile, they intend to do everything they can to increase the sales volume at that restaurant by 30-40%. When she made that statement, I almost thought a couple of Planning Board members were going to faint!

“30 or 40 PERCENT!” One exclaimed, “Has a TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDY been done on that area to show the impact of that?!”

Oh boy, I thought. At best, McDonald’s just delayed their project by a year. At worst, they killed their project. The expansion and improvement of McDonald’s at Route 30 and Caldor Road Framingham is a win-win for McDonald’s and for Framingham. The approval SHOULD be a no brainer. Now, what will really happen. Should I send out for a Big Mac while we wait?