‘Blizzards’ forecast for West Bay
Dairy Queen in George Town
(CNS): ‘Blizzards’ are coming soon to the north end of West Bay Road after plans were approved for a new Dairy Queen ice cream parlour to open at the Jacques Scott Plaza. The issue debated before the Central Planning Authority this week was a request for a change in use for the premises from a retail establishment to a restaurant. This drew objections from neighboring residents at the Sundial condos, who already had grievances with the noise and odours generated by another restaurant in that plaza, previously granted a change of use.
They said the Boggy Sands Cafe is a disturbance because it has an exhaust fan running 24 hours a day facing their units and they were reluctant to see another food service operation set up adjacent to their property.
The attorney representing Jacques Scott argued on the one hand that the objections to Dairy Queen opening were primarily related to a business that had already been granted the relevant planning permission and therefore were not applicable. Furthermore, while the ice cream store is being classified as a restaurant, it was said that it is really the least invasive example of such an establishment, because it will not cook any food on site and will simply serve ice cream to seated customers, so the operation was unlikely to cause any disturbance to its neighbours.
As the CPA discussed whether the new Dairy Queen outlet, famed for its Blizzard ice cream sundaes, would be warming hot dogs, as it does at the established George Town waterfront outlet, or flipping burgers in addition to serving ice cream, it was established that there were no exhaust fans included in the planning submission because no cooking will take place on the site.
A representative of Sundial condos attended the public meeting to express their concerns about the noise they already have to deal with from the exhaust fan at Boggy Sands Café and that a second restaurant there would be intolerable. He said the fan at Boggy Sands Cafe operates at high decibel levels, exceeding acceptable standards, with what was described as a smell of burning and rotten food. It was claimed that the sound level from the fan registered at over 80 decibels, when the prescribed limit is 55db.
He also expressed concern about the amount of litter that he had seen on the site being blown their way, as well as the potential for additional units in the plaza to also change use from retail to restaurant at some point in the future.
It was then stated by the attorney for Jacques Scott that such concerns are unfounded because for a third restaurant to operate out of the six units in the plaza, an upgrade of the sewerage facilities would be required. The Water Authority’s comments on the requested change of use application notes that the second restaurant would bring the plaza’s waste-water requirements to the maximum capacity for its current treatment plant.
Before going on to approve the application, the CPA reiterated that all the objections to the proposed new Dairy Queen outlet seemed to be based more on gripes with the already approved Boggy Sands Café. It was also established that deliveries to the site were unlikely to create any additional problems for neighbours. Sundial residents had said they were concerned about unauthorised deliveries to the north of the property, facing their condos, subjecting them to exhaust fumes and the beeping noise of reversing lorries.
Jacques Scott’s representatives, however, said the shared designated delivery bay at the Foster’s Food Fair Republix Plaza was actually the closest access point to the proposed site, so there would be no need for deliveries to be made anywhere else.
Category: Business, Food and Drink
Only in Cayman does the opening of a Dairy Queen franchise cause so much controversy. I do want people to realize this is a franchise and thus essentially a small Caymanian business.
For gods sakes, it is just a small ice cream parlor!
Just what West Bay needs, another fast food outlet. Keep your population fat and they dont have the energy to object to all the other shit going down in the country.
Uh oh, there goes the diet!! lol
Don’t they have enough of the white stuff up there already?
Read the PY and Biller Paw report and open dairy queen.
This is news or an ad??
This is really strange because after this plaza opened they had to change the sewage system. It seems the big money companies get away with what they want. Hopefully CNS will not ban this comment due to conflicts of interest.
CNS: I can’t even begin to imagine what you think our conflict of interest would be. Baffling.
Anonymous must be referring to the fact that you like ice cream as being the source of “conflict of interest”. Shame on you ladies for liking ice cream.
Dairy Queen is as much ice cream as Burger King is burgers
NIMBY approach.
WOW That’s great we welcome Dairy Queen in West Bay. Now we don’t have to go all the way into town on a Sunday drive to the Dairy Queen in town. Great News
I would like to see both Burger King and Kentucky Fried come to West Bay… waiting
They don’t want to and you can’t blame them, it’s West Bay
Money is money, honey. Try your racist slams in subtler tones.
Let me guess, you live in Prospect….
Because prospect is so much safer….
Every one now wants to be in the west bay
Whole wheat is healthier than that white bread stuff.
Change is bad seems to be a reoccurring theme here.
Bracka
As an investor it must be really bad to see tranquility turning into little Miami? What is so wrong with trying to hold on to a little bit of that? Everyone is so quick to over populate this Little Rock and make it into a place that all the investors and tourists ran from. Be carful you might be cutting your nose of to spite your face to hurry and make this a concrete jungle.
Take a drive past Bodden Town for once.. Why are we acting like there’s not plenty of island that way?