News that a McDonald’s restaurant is taking over the site of an iconic Chinese restaurant in a residential Prince George neighbourhood came as a relief to Maurice Martin.

Martin, who lives in a seniors condominium development right next door to the former China Sail restaurant site at Fifth Avenue and Tabor Boulevard, says the choices for a new development could have been much more of an invasion of his privacy, with his house only a few metres away from where the restaurant will be build.

“I’d rather see them than a high-rise apartment,” laughed Martin.

Martin moved into his spacious home in Tabor Villa Estates in 2007. The back yard of his spacious home is like park and runs the entire width of the property where McDonald’s is building its new restaurant and parking lot. Slated to open in November, it will also have a drive-through take-out window. Martin’s house is so well insulated the noise of an excavator and piece of heavy equipment packing the ground on the construction site less than 100 metres away was barely noticeable as we spoke in his kitchen.

The 83-year-old has no concerns having a McDonald’s next door is going to create a disturbance.

“I don’t think it will be a heck of a lot different, maybe a little more traffic, but it will probably be more daytime traffic. I think it will be just fine.”

The original story in the Citizen posted last week has generated 208 comments on our Facebook site, many of them negative. They said they will miss the China Sail, which closed in March when the owners retired. They had been preparing meals in the neighbourhood since 1989 (at Tabor Plaza) and opened at the Fifth and Tabor location in December 1992. Other commenters were hoping for a classier restaurant or a neighbourhood pub.

The Citizen spoke to several other residents of the strata development and the nearby Prince George Chateau seniors residence on Hill Avenue and nobody was against having a McDonald’s in the neighbourhood.

“I kind of like the idea, it was kind of surprising, we never expected a McDonald’s,” said one Tabor Villa resident, who asked not to be identified in the story. “We’re going to look at the positive side of it. I think the benefits are going to outweigh anything.

“We won’t be there a lot but you can get a full meal and it’s there any time you want. Some people are probably worried about it, but right off the bat we never had anything negative to think about.”

The woman’s daughter, who lives with her mom, is hoping McDonald’s will situate its drive-through on the south side of the building, furthest way from the seniors complex, so they won’t get the smell of exhaust from idling engines or hear the speakers when drivers place their orders.

She said the area is far enough away from downtown that there isn’t a problem with undesirable street people who abuse drugs or alcohol who might be attracted to the restaurant.

“This neighbourhood is not like a central gathering point, it’s kind of out of the way, so you won’t get the transient population,” she said. “I think it’ll be nice to go there and grab a coffee or on a hot day you can get an ice cream.”

Andy Kristiansen, 84, lives at the Prince George Chateau, one block away from the restaurant, and he says he’s spoken to several of his neighbours at the residence who look forward to the short walk there to meet up with friends. He doesn’t eat McDonald’s food but he knows it will be popular with others.

“I think it’s good, you’ll get more traffic,” Kristiansen said. “Somebody was already talking that it would be nice to go down and get a coffee and a burger, so it’s going to be good. There will be people from here going there.”

Tabor Vista Estates residents were initially told they would be included in a discussion with city staff to discuss the potential rezoning of the site, but that speculation ended several days later and the scheduled meeting was cancelled when McDonald’s bought the land.

“I’m getting used to it now, I mean, we can’t stop anything,” said Margaret Martin, who is not related to Maurice. “I just hope the drive-though is not 24 hours a day.”

She said the nine-unit strata development and the restaurant share the same sewer line. Martin found that out the hard way in 1998, two months after she moved in, when the grease pit from China Sail plugged the sewer system which caused it to back up, filling her unfinished basement with several inches of greasy water. The same thing had happened once before, not long after the strata was built in 1993. She pointed out that design flaw to the general contractor building the new restaurant and he promised to forward her concerns in an email to McDonald’s.

Increased litter in the area could be a problem when customers discard burger wrappers and drink containers as they walk through the neighbourhood and several residents say students at nearby D.P. Todd Secondary School will be the most likely culprits. High school kids are already in the habit of walking to the convenience store at the filling station across the street from the restaurant.

“I know it’s going to be awful with the garbage,” said Margaret Martin. “You just have to look at any schoolyard, nobody makes them pick it up and that I don’t understand. They’ve been allowed to get away with that for many years. It’s absolutely ridiculous. D.P. Todd is just awful.”

A McDonald’s representative from Victoria met with strata residents and assured them the site will be patrolled regularly to keep litter in check.

“If there is a litter problem I guess we’ll bring it to their attention,” said Maurice Martin. “If they have a pop and throw it onto our property we’ll probably pick it up or maybe we’ll have (the Citizen) come over and take picture - this is our new McDonald’s.”