Traffic concerns halt McDonald's drive

Controversial plans for a 24-hour McDonald's in Balmoral are on hold because of traffic concerns.

The Auckland City Council wants the fast food giant to provide more detail about the impact of the proposed restaurant and drive-through on surrounding roads.

A traffic report in its resource consent application only predicts car and customer numbers for Fridays and Saturdays.

It estimates 1876 customers using the outlet, between Balmoral Rd and Wiremu St, in an average 24-hour weekend period.

McDonald's has been asked for more information by mid-October.

Council planning team leader Ian Smallburn says the intersections where Balmoral Rd and Wiremu St meet Dominion Rd are of most concern.

"We want to know whether there would be queuing at the intersections and what impact it would have on their functionality."

He says the project will stay on hold until all the traffic issues have been resolved.

A McDonald's spokeswoman says requests for more information are common for many development projects.

"Traffic management is a critical part of any development in Auckland and it's important to put the traffic impact into perspective."

She says the intersection of Dominion Rd and Balmoral Rd is one of the busiest in New Zealand, used by about 50,000 vehicles a day.

"We believe that we will be able to manage the impact of traffic on the local area."

Balmoral Community Group spokeswoman Justine Tringham says intersections surrounding the site are already busy.

Emissions from cars waiting at the drive-through and the constant noise of vehicles coming and going are also worries.

"It's a completely inappropriate site for the scale of operation they want to put in," she says.

- © Fairfax NZ News