The town of Ulster town has been asked by independent restaurateurs to find ways to discourage franchise restaurants in the town, citing concern that nationally run stores will ultimately overwhelm locally owned businesses.
“Throughout the last few years, our town has been bombarded by the rise of restaurant chains,” said Liz Kyriacou, who owns Guido’s Grill and Pasta House. “From Red Lobster, to Applebee’s and the newest Texas Roadhouse Grill, our local independent businesses are suffering severe losses. Where will it end? When our restaurants that we have spent our lives building are reduced to quiet, empty storage rooms for our hopes and dreams?”
Kyriacou attended the August 23 session of the Ulster Town Board to raise her concerns but they received little more than sympathy from town officials. Town Supervisor Nick Woerner said methods to limit franchises would be reviewed but he opined that preventing a business from opening at a location in the town would be unconstitutional.
In the neighboring town of Woodstock, the Town Board last year passed a law that prohibits drive-in windows on restaurants, thus discouraging and likely preventing fast food franchises such as McDonald”™s from seeking to open locales in the venue, a small town with a central hamlet that has a variety of small shops catering to tourists.
But the situation is much different in the town of Ulster, which serves as Ulster County”™s de-fecto shopping center, with a lengthy strip of malls and plazas that include nationally known retail franchise”™s such as Barnes and Noble books and Bed, Bath and Beyond home supplies, Target department store and Staples business supply center, and other brand name stores in addition to franchise restaurants, including a McDonalds and other food outlets.
And support for a franchise ban is not universal. There has been some discussion of welcoming fast food outlets into the Washington Avenue corridor adjacent to Thruway exit 19 as a method of increasing sales tax revenue to the town of Ulster and to Ulster County. Currently, the corridor has only a gas station convenience store and a diner. It is touted as a potential gateway to the historic city of Kingston, which was the first capital city of New York, but the town and the city have never settled on a development scenario for the area.Â
The city has a roughly mile-long Gateway Corridor district that picks up at the border of the town, about a quarter mile from the Thruway exit. Thus, the city is somewhat dependent on town decisions for the appearance of the area.
Woerner said that laws used for liquor licenses in New Jersey, where new permits are issued through existing license holders, are also being reviewed for possible use in the town. He said there is also consideration of helping independent restaurants develop a network to attract customers to independent restaurants in the town of Ulster and the city of Kingston.
Kyriacou said that the town should consider the economic impact of locally owned business as opposed to national franchises, saying that local businesses generate a greater return in the local economy than money received by franchise owners who ship funds to corporate headquarters elsewhere.
“We don”™t need any more chains in our community,” Kyriacou said. “It”™s time we started fixing things for the people who have been here and will be here for years to come.”  Â
