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Council continues five McDonald's drive‑thru conditional uses after public concerns about deed restriction on closed site
Summary
Multiple McDonald's conditional use permits to authorize large‑scale drive‑through facilities were continued to June 10 after public comment raised concerns about a separate McDonald's property with a deed restriction that may limit future sales and redevelopment.
Members of the public urged the Norfolk City Council to continue consideration of five conditional use permits for McDonald's drive‑through facilities and to review a deed restriction affecting a separate vacant McDonald's property.
At public comment, Lawrence Brown said he supported one of the McDonald's conditional use items being considered (C14) and praised the franchise owner for community engagement, while also raising a separate land‑use issue: a closed McDonald's at the corner of Little Creek Road and Shore Drive that Brown said is vacant and encumbered by a deed restriction preventing sale for competing food uses.
"I think it's a building that now has been vandalized a couple times... I'm hoping, you know, we've bridal, economic development has tried to reach out to McDonald's, and they just said they're not going to bend on that," Brown said, urging staff to pursue information about the deed restriction and its implications for redevelopment.
Neil Weisbord, a land‑use counsel in the meeting, said he was not previously aware of the deed restriction and volunteered to raise the issue with his contact at McDonald's. Economic development staff and the city attorney were asked to investigate the restriction; Council members indicated the matter would be continued to the June 10 meeting so staff could review the deed language.
The council voted to continue conditional use permits C10 through C14 as a block to the June 10 meeting. The motion to continue was put to a roll call and recorded in the excerpt as votes in favor by the council members present. Council also continued related consent items (including C15 and several other conditional uses) to June 10 for further review.
Lawrence Brown told the council the franchisee owns stores across the East Coast and multiple locations in the Hampton Roads area and said the particular property at Little Creek and Shore Drive has sat empty despite interest from potential buyers because of a restrictive covenant. "They will not allow anybody else to purchase it unless they put in the deed that they will not sell food, at that site, for competition reasons," Brown said during public comment.
Councilman asked the city attorney to review the deed and noted that economic development staff would follow up; City Attorney Mr. Carroll was specifically named as the official who could review the deed restriction. The council will take up the McDonald's conditional use permits again at its June 10 meeting.
