News

QSR ban proposed for Midwest town

July 15, 2010

While QSR bans have been implemented in some California areas, the idea may be starting to trickle into the Midwest. A committee in Sister Bay, Wisc., a village of about 860 people, voted July 15 to recommend a ban on QSR chain restaurants.

According to WTAQ.com, the topic has been divisive in the Door County community. Currently, the northern part of the county has no QSR chains.

Throughout the past few months, the Sister Bay Village board had a moratorium on QSR restaurants. When a franchisee inquired about opening a Subway restaurant, however, the discussion reignited and a proposed ordinance was written up to ban chains and tightly regulate other QSR restaurants.

The Subway would have been the first chain restaurant in the Door County peninsula north of Sturgeon Bay, according to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

At a public hearing July 15, the commission recommended the village board adopt an ordinance to keep QSR restaurants from opening in town. The board is awaiting final action, which could happen by mid-August.

In 2009, Michigan's Mackinac Island passed a similar ordinance that allows formula restaurants to operate there only if the chain outlet has a design, menu, employee uniforms and other characteristics different from restaurants it operates elsewhere.