By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Feb. 6, 2012

Over the coming months, expect to see some changes at one of the businesses that for decades has anchored the Center City’s northern gateway.

Bearco Management on Jan. 11 won the Elgin City Council’s approval of its plans to rebuild its McDonald’s restaurant at 401 Summit St. and 455 N. Gifford, just east of Dundee Avenue.

As of Friday, the company gave no indication of when it plans to start the project. But during his presentation to the City Council on Jan. 11, Elgin Community Development Director Marc Mylott said McDonald's wants to demolish the restaurant and rebuild a slightly larger one, but with about the same number of seats.

The new brick building, according to the proposal submitted to the city, would be 4,484 square feet.

Bearco Management owns the franchise for a number of area McDonald’s restaurants, including the one on Larkin Avenue on Elgin’s West Side. That building, except for one wall, was demolished and rebuilt during a three-month period in 2009.

Mylott said the new facility would use the same driveway configuration it has now for customer access and drive-through traffic. However, a reconfiguration of the drive-through area behind the restaurant will cut the number of parking spaces in the lot from 60 now to just 50. The documentation provided to the council indicates that more than 72 percent of the restaurant’s customers use the drive-through facility.

McDonald’s requested a number of variances in parking area requirements and landscape requirements because of the size of the lot. According to the documentation filed with the city, the restaurant will screen the Fremont Street side of its property with a 6-foot-high solid fence, and use an 8-foot-high solid fence along the adjoining residential lots on the southeast side of the property.