A new McDonald's opened Monday at 4125 Ball Road in Cypress, completing a project that started when the City Council approved a conditional use permit in July 2025 — over the lone objection of the council member who has since become its second-ranking member.
The restaurant replaces a Union Bank branch that had been vacant since 2023. It sits in the Ralphs shopping center, runs 24 hours a day, and features a dual-lane drive-thru with two side-by-side ordering windows and a bypass lane.
The vote
The council approved the conditional use permit 4-1 on July 14, 2025. Mayor David Burke and Council Members Graciela Medrano, Bonnie Peat, and Jon Minikus voted yes. Council Member Kyle Chang, who has since been elevated to Mayor Pro Tem representing District 3, voted no.
Chang laid out his reasoning at the hearing.
"It begins with a very simple question: what kind of city do I want to live in? Do I want a city filled with diverse locally owned businesses, places like Goodfellow's Coffee? Do we want healthier food choices? Do we want walkable and bikeable neighborhoods? Or do we want a fast-food drive-thru chain on every corner?"
He also flagged parking. The Ralphs shopping center had 420 spaces before construction; the project reduced that to 415, one more than required under city code. Chang said the lot was not built for the volume a 24-hour drive-thru would pull, especially with the number of restaurants already in that center.
"This parking lot is pretty packed on weekend nights and we are still waiting for El Zarape to open back up. In my experience when lines get really busy especially for fast-food restaurants they often spill into nearby parking lots. It is just a very small footprint."
He also noted a second McDonald's already operates roughly two miles away at Ball Road and Valley View Avenue.
What the city required
The conditional use permit came with conditions: loitering signage posted on-site and a queuing management plan. McDonald's submitted a traffic study estimating 82 morning peak-hour trips and 61 afternoon peak-hour trips. The project was approved as CEQA-exempt infill development.
Dining room hours will be set by the franchisee. Drive-thru operations run around the clock.
The opening adds to a Cypress restaurant scene that now includes 132 eating and drinking establishments, 10 of which have drive-thrus. Seven of those drive-thru restaurants are national chains, according to city data presented at the 2025 hearing.
The new location is one of several business changes on the Cypress landscape. Yamaha Motor Corporation, which has operated its U.S. headquarters in Cypress for five decades, announced plans to relocate to Georgia by 2028.