The location of a proposed McDonald’s restaurant in Toms River, N.J., Dec. 2025. (Credit: Google Maps)
The Toms River planning board has approved plans for McDonald’s corporation to demolish an existing bank building and construct a new restaurant with a dual-lane drive-through
The new restaurant, at 1256 Indian Head Road, will replace the former Wells Fargo bank branch that was located within the parking lot area of the adjacent Home Depot store. Last week, the board adopted a resolution granting the company preliminary and final major site plan approval, along with bulk variances and design waivers for the property. The roughly 3,694-square-foot McDonald’s restaurant will replace the bank, which sits on a pad site, and will include related site improvements.
A modern McDonald’s restaurant architectural design. (Credit: McDonald’s USA LLC)
The board granted several variances and waivers in connection with the approval. These include a front yard setback to the building of 119.9 feet, where 120 feet is required — a pre-existing nonconformity — and a front yard parking setback from Route 9 of 34.8 feet, where 50 feet is required, also a pre-existing nonconformity.
Additional relief allows ADA parking spaces of 8-feet and 11-feet in width rather than 12-feet as normally required; an internal landscape dividing strip of 5.3-feet instead of the required 10-feet; and four façade or building-mounted signs where only one is permitted. The approval also permits four menu board signs rather than two, waives the requirement for a sidewalk along the roadway frontage, and allows a drive-through canopy and gateway signs with a height of 11 feet where 6 feet is permitted.
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