Supervisors approve McDonald’s upgrade
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a zoning special exception on May 23 to allow an upgrade of the McDonald’s at the corner of Leesburg Pike and Carlin Springs Road in Bailey’s Crossroads.
The project would add a second drive-through window and a 1,300-square foot addition to the building. The interior would be remodeled and the façade would be modernized.
An office building on the west side of McDonald’s would be demolished to accommodate the additional drive-through and provide more surface parking. An electric vehicle charging station would be added.
Instead of the existing two access points on Leesburg Pike, there would be just one, which would improve pedestrian safety. Pedestrian crosswalks would be constructed on Leesburg Pike leading to a new outdoor seating area at the front of the restaurant.
McDonald’s would dedicate a stretch of right-of-way along Leesburg Pike for the future BRT (bus rapid transit) and a 10-foot-wide sidewalk. An eight-foot-wide sidewalk would be built along Carlin Springs Road.
The project also includes a bioretention stormwater facility and landscaping to include 39 new trees and more than 200 shrubs.
Related story: Decision deferred on McDonald’s improvements
The application had been held up while McDonald’s Corp. and planning staff worked out an agreement on the county’s green building standards. A development condition approved by both parties calls for McDonald’s to post a “green building escrow” in the amount of $64,830 while applying for EarthCraft Light Commercial certification.
If the project fails to meet the certification requirements but is within three points of doing so, 50 percent of the escrow funds will revert to Fairfax County to support its environmental initiatives. If McDonald’s fails to attain certification by more than three points, the entire escrow amount will be released to the county.
The development conditions also allow the applicant to use an equivalent green building certification program if approved by the Environmental and Development Review Branch of the Department of Planning and Development.
The building was developed in 1971 as a Roy Rogers restaurant and was leased to McDonald’s in 1997.
Love, love, love the new outdoor seating area! This can’t come soon enough.
This is the location of the very first Roy Rogers restaurant. (Before that, I think it might have been the “UFO” restaurant.)
The plot has been remodeled several times over the many decades. Imagery from 1988 still looks like a Roy Rogers, I think. Anyone remember more details?
The office building has been there a very long time. It has those interesting colored tile windows. It had some interesting history too, but I have forgotten it. Anyone remember?
The new McDonalds plan sounds good.
I’m not absolutely sure, but it may have been a Jr. Hot Shoppe before Roy’s. Both were owned by Marriott.
I generally love outdoor seating, but in light of recent accidents, it could be a hazard being so close to vehicular traffic without some type of barrier or curb.
Or all the shootings that have happened in the shopping centers right there in the past months.
Were not “the shootings” that you refer to all in the Build America plaza (strip of middle-eastern venues) about 3/4 mile away on S.George Mason (other side of Skyline)? Have there been shootings anywhere near the McDonalds?
What are you proposing, restricting the dining to indoors? Will there be bulletproof glass and metal detectors at the McDonalds?
Or perhaps the police just need to patrol one dangerous strip that’s elsewhere in the general neighborhood?