With just one more city hurdle to clear, the McDonald’s on Oakland Avenue in Austin could be well on its way to starting a rebuilding project by May.

That hurdle is a Monday City Council vote on whether or not to release an easement and relocate utilities from a nearby piece of land that was once an alley. If council votes ‘yes,’ McDonald’s will essentially have free reign over the land for its project.

Executives from the fast-food chain indicated in a letter to the city that mid-May would in fact be the preferred start date for construction.

A company representative said the project will involve tearing down the existing restaurant and building a new one, which will take between 12 and 14 weeks. The new building will be bigger, the representative said, and should have a more efficient drive-through lane.

Though basically unchanged physically since opening in 1969, the restaurant did change hands in October. That’s when Dave Scherer, whose family had owned the Oakland McDonald’s since its opening, sold the restaurant to Wisconsin-based Courtesy Corporation. Scherer also sold the 14th Street Southwest McDonald’s, which he had owned for seven years.

City Council will meet on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.