The Clay Planning Board would not give McDonald's the referral it needed to move its Wegmans Plaza drive-thru forward on April 9, with Chairman Russ Mitchell telling the applicant's representatives that the plaza's internal traffic pattern had to be sorted out first. Mitchell asked for a single drawing of the entire site, from the traffic signal to Cedarpost, showing every store and the full parking area so the board could see how a McDonald's would interact with its neighbors. The request came after residents packed the public hearing on Case #2025-011, a special permit for a McDonald's at 4979 West Taft Road. Sandy Laurenti, of 4994 Wintersweet Dr., told the board that 300 petitions opposing the project were turned in at an April 7 Town Board meeting. She described traffic already backing up at the plaza's signal, delivery trucks for Wegmans and Olum's competing with school buses from Liverpool and North Syracuse on Cedarpost and West Taft Road, and ambulance traffic from Well Now. She said she did not want to look at what she called a big black box across from her house, and contrasted the site with an existing McDonald's on Route 57 that sits off to the side of traffic rather than in the middle of a residential-facing plaza. Erika Gallucci, of 5003 Astilbe Path, cited figures presented at the meeting: an average of 1,000 cars a day passing through the site, with peaks of 100 cars an hour during lunch, dinner and weekends. She noted the board rejected a one-lane McDonald's drive-thru at the same location in 2016, and asked what had changed in nine years to now favor a two-lane design. Debbie Errante, of 5056 Roseanne Dr., raised garbage, dumping and overflowing easements, and said Blink Fitness's expansion and Olum's arrival in the plaza were already adding vehicles before McDonald's is factored in; she said the proposed green space and curbing would eat into existing parking. Her comments were followed by Drew Errante, a student at CNS, who described speeding traffic and repeated accidents in the area. Tom Fennessy, of 5075 Roseanne Dr., asked about snow removal; Mitchell said that would be addressed at site plan review if the case advances. Attorney Joe Frateschi of Harris Beach, representing McDonald's, said the current plans reflect changes requested at earlier meetings. Engineer Randy Bebout of Bohler Engineering described a 3,700-square-foot restaurant on 1.3 leased acres, with 64 parking spaces and additional green space, and a side-by-side drive-thru with two lanes for entering and ordering that narrows to a single lane for leaving. Board member Karen Guinup suggested directing exiting drive-thru traffic with a left-only turn back toward the signal, which Bebout agreed to study. Member Paul Graves said the plaza's internal circulation is already why it is underused, and that adding vehicles would just send more cars looking for the far exit. Member Jim Palumbo asked town attorney Kathleen Bennett whether the new curb cuts would require an amended site plan for the entire Wegmans property; Bennett said that decision is the board's prerogative. Mitchell called the West Taft Road stretch a difficult corridor, noting senior housing, Northern Credit Union and a possible return by Summit Credit Union are all in the mix, and that Onondaga County is not currently allowing additional ingress or egress onto the road. That same county constraint is why the board separately adjourned the Inverness Gardens senior housing case to June 11, since its access also depends on the same signal. The Northern Credit Union special permit was withdrawn outright, because the Town Board has not yet referred it to the Planning Board pending zone clarification. The board did complete some business. It adopted a negative SEQR declaration and granted final plat approval, both 6-0, for the KRSM Subdivision warehouse project on Buckley Road, and approved an amended site plan for the J.W. Didado Expansion on Morgan Road, also 6-0. Nearly every other case, including a Packaging Corp. of America expansion on Steelway Boulevard that raised Indiana Bat habitat questions, was adjourned to April 23. The McDonald's case joins that list, with the plaza-wide traffic drawing Mitchell requested still outstanding.