McDonald's operates 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. These days, the most discussed and debated outlet in the vast hamburger chain might be in Shaler.
Floodwaters from Hurricane Ivan washed through the McDonald's in 2004, prompting the corporation to plan a new building.
It wants to tear down the existing building and build another one on the same spot at Route 8 and East Pennview Street. The new restaurant would sit about three feet higher on soil added to the site, Shaler Manager Tim Rogers said.
He said this small change would protect the restaurant from flooding if Pine Creek overruns its banks again. The township's engineer and planning commission found that a rebuilt McDonald's would have a negligible effect on water flow to the rest of the area.
Shaler commissioners approved the project in August, but the state Department of Environmental Protection stopped it.
Because the restaurant sits in a federally designated floodway, the state is worried that water streaming from its elevated lot would drench somebody else.
"We think it's going to have an impact, and we have an obligation to protect the neighbors," DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said.
Chuck Peperak, construction manager for 450 McDonald's restaurants in the region, said demolishing and rebuilding one of the chain's stores typically takes 80 to 90 days. He said he put the Shaler project "on the back burner" after it became apparent that the state wanted his company to undertake additional engineering studies.
He said this would add $10,000 to $20,000 to the cost of a $2 million project.
"I didn't think it was going to be that bureaucratic, but it was," Mr. Peperak said. "If I wouldn't have had the DEP, we would have had it built in December."
Now, he said, he hopes the Shaler McDonald's can be torn down and rebuilt next year.
Ms. Humphreys said the DEP had to be thorough, so it wants McDonald's to provide a precise assessment of how properties downstream would be affected by the change.
Shaler government executives, though, say the state agency disregarded important information and stalled the project for no good reason.
The township is spending $4.4 million to buy properties in the flood plain near McDonald's. This land will be converted to green space, which will better protect homes and business from flooding.
The change also will lessen the already minimal impact of McDonald's rebuilding its restaurant, Mr. Rogers said.
He said McDonald's, a good neighbor in the 25 years its Route 8 restaurant has been open, deserves better treatment from the state.
"This isn't a new development. It's an existing property owner trying to protect itself, and I think there should be some sensitivity to that fact," Mr. Rogers said.
Shaler business owners stressed that point this month when a team of national experts studied the Route 8 corridor. The panel, brought to town by the Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon University, recommended that Pennsylvania governments do a better job of helping businesses obtain permits and licenses.
Shaler engineer Kevin Creagh said the McDonald's project was an example of the DEP's hamstringing a business by mandating costly studies.
Mr. Creagh said Shaler, a bedroom community with relatively few businesses, cannot afford to lose what it has.
"This is not like McKnight Road. We don't have that level of development," he said.
McDonald's wants a new Shaler store for another reason. Mr. Peperak said the existing outlet was built in 1982 and was at the stage where repairs become more expensive than new construction.
First Published: May 17, 2007, 10:15 a.m.
