Developers and their civil engineer presented a preliminary concept for a McDonald's restaurant on the parcel at FM 2004 and North Yaupon Street during a Planning Commission meeting. The presentation was for discovery and feedback only; no application approval or formal vote was taken. The commission asked the project team to return with specific mitigation measures addressing lighting, signage, hours of operation, odor control, delivery and stacking/traffic circulation before proceeding to formal review.

Casey Genovese, a civil engineer with Linfield, Hunter & Junius representing the project team, said the site is under two acres and that they had met planning, engineering, public works and utilities staff at a predevelopment meeting. Genovese said the building and pavement layout had been shifted north (toward the highway) to increase separation from nearby residences; the team also intends to rely on a reciprocal easement to use approximately 18 parking stalls on adjacent church property to satisfy local parking requirements. Project materials referenced a code-required parking count of 63 spaces and noted McDonald's typically needs 45'to'50 spaces.

Staff and commissioners noted the site is zoned B-1 (Neighborhood Business). That district's ordinance contains additional requirements for any drive-in or drive-through restaurant within 60 feet of a residential property line. The project team measured roughly 70 feet from the restaurant lot line to the nearby residential PURZ (Red Oak Court), which places the site just outside the 60-foot automatic threshold; however commissioners said the ordinance allows the commission to require mitigation even when a use is beyond 60 feet if the commission finds potential adverse impacts.

Commissioners and residents raised specific concerns: hours of operation and whether the restaurant could run 24 hours; lighting and sign brightness (the team said a freestanding sign up to 18 feet tall and 100 square feet would be allowed under code); odor and grease venting from fryers; delivery truck timing and frequency; stacking and queuing on site that could spill onto FM 2004; and noise from drive-through speakers. Staff and commissioners discussed ordinance limitations: they noted a 2025 state law referenced in the meeting prevents cities from fully prohibiting overnight commercial deliveries, which limits local control over delivery hours, but suggested the developer could be asked to propose delivery windows and operational commitments as part of a neighborhood mitigation package.

Commissioners requested the team return with: a refined site plan showing final building placement and circulation, a lighting plan that complies with the city's foot-candle limits and minimizes spill to adjacent yards, a sign plan favoring monument signage rather than a tall pylon, operational hours recommendations (commissioners suggested 5 a.m. to midnight as a potential compromise), sound mitigation for the drive-through speaker, landscaping or fence/screening to buffer the nearest houses, and odor/venting controls for the kitchen. Staff clarified that the planning commission (not city council) will be the decision-making body for conditional-use reviews in this case and invited the applicant to return for a future planning commission agenda with the requested materials.