Tralee to get a bigger McDonalds

Councillors in Tralee have given a green light to a doubling in size of the town’s McDonald’s restaurant.

The new supersized Tralee outlet will be the fast-food chain’s second stand-alone, two-storey McDonald’s in the country.

A special meeting was necessary to ask councillors to contravene the town development plan, because of the zoning and importance of the location at the entrance to Tralee.

Six of nine councillors voted for the development, two were absent. Sinn Féin councillor Pa Daly of Sinn Féin voted against the development after his request for a special charge for the clean-up of litter arising from McDonald’s on Tralee’s by-pass roads was rejected.

The development will see the demolition of the existing 317 sq m drive-through premises, to be replaced by a 618 sq/m building.

In the application, town planning consultants Tom Phillips and Associates acting for McDonald’s Ireland, say the two-storey model is reserved for “flagship” locations.

A picture of a modern outlet in Cologne, Germany, accompanies the application as an indication of the how Tralee’s new McDonald’s might look.

“Substantial efforts are being made by McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland to change their image and attract new types of customers, and improve the appearance and visual impact of their premises across the country,” the agent states.

The works on the site — near the Manor West Retail Park, Kerry County Council buildings, and University Hospital Kerry on the main eastern entrance to Tralee — would involve extra car-park spaces and signage, along with new footpaths and bicycle parking.

The proposal sets out plans to expand eastwards onto an adjoining site at Manor West and Rathass, which is land zoned “landmark gateway”. This zoning aims to attract high-quality businesses and accompanying high-quality design, but is open for consideration for restaurants.

Mr Daly said the company should have to pay a levy of €2,000 annually for the clean-up of the bypass litter arising from the drive-through at night.

He acknowledged the efforts of the company on-site against litter, but said anyone cycling or walking around Tralee bypasses saw the litter from items such as ketchup, salt, and other things “people never even asked for in the first place”.

Fine Gael’s Jim Finucane rejected the proposal, saying the local facility had a good track record and contributed to Tidy Tralee. They had met landscaping and other concerns raised by planners.

Tralee town manager Michael Scannell said the rates paid — which will increase with the increased size of the building — contributed to tackling waste. It would not be reasonable to impose an additional cost “because of the actions of people away from the facility”, he said.

McDonald’s cannot start work for four weeks, under the planning process. The application, lodged in May, attracted no objections.