A DEVELOPMENT application for a McDonalds family restaurant in Meade Street has been lodged with Glen Innes Severn Council, six months after council deferred permission to demolish the former Roxy Theatre building for the project.

An application by McDonalds Australia for a 63-seat restaurant, which will include a McCafe, playground and drive-through facility, was received by council last Friday. The plan calls for a drive-through facility in a clockwise direction around a new building - the reason given for demolition, rather than re-use, of the Roxy.

Last September, council voted to defer approving an application from developer Theo Zannes to demolish the Roxy until a DA from McDonalds could be considered at the same time. This was because the Roxy building was on council’s heritage list, and removing it from the list to allow demolition could only be done with proof of subsequent redevelopment of the site.

Director of Development and Environmental Services Graham Price said RTA and council staff have started assessing the lengthy application. Both the DA to demolish the Roxy and the DA for the restaurant will go on public display for 30 days, probably from late next week.

“It is an integrated development, so it has to be forwarded to the RTA for comment. In the meantime, council engineering and planning staff will assess it and it will go on display. The public will be more than welcome to come and view the application, and make submissions and comments to the general manager,” Mr Price said.

The application for the project - estimated to cost $900,000 - is expected to be considered by council at its May meeting.

The hip and gable, concrete and fibre-cement building has been designed to “fit in” with the style of Glen Innes, something emphasised at a pre-lodgement meeting with McDonalds in January, Mr Price said.

“Council was keen to stress that while this isn’t a heritage building it should fit in with the feel of the town - a compatible design but does not seek to replicate heritage,” he said.

Mr Price said an application for the adjoining Woolworths service station, on the site of a former BP, was expected in the next two months.

“Because of site and access issues both companies have been working together,” he said.

In the document, McDonalds Australia estimates the project will employ up to 70 people, “mostly young persons who will benefit from training”.

Since September, council has been working with both developer Theo Zannes and McDonalds Australia to consolidate the site for the development. A vacant block of land between the Visitor Information Centre and the former BP service station, use of which had been given to whomever owned the BP, was sold by council to Mr Zannes for $30,000, conditional on the project going ahead. Separately, council has negotiated with McDonalds for the lease of 14 car spaces behind the Visitors Centre, which will be reconfigured by McDonalds in addition to the lease, to cost $1267 annually.

The DA will be on display at council’s Church St office, where planning staff will be able to answer questions on the development, Mr Price said.