Mary Brown's backs up traffic
Long drive-thru line spills out onto Borden Drive
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknifers take their fried chicken very seriously. So seriously in fact, that when Mary Brown's Famous Chicken & Taters opened last week, some people waited for more than two hours to get a taste.
A week after it opened, cars were still flooding the drive-thru and spilling out onto Borden Drive around Mary Brown's Famous Chicken & Taters. - Jessica Davey-Quantick/NNSL photo |
The restaurant is located on the corner of Borden Drive and Old Airport road. On Feb. 1, when the restaurant opened, a line of cars 20 vehicles long snaked down Borden Drive.
A week later, there was still a line of cars inching out onto the street, waiting for the drive-thru.
"The hype is insane," said franchise owner, Perry Campbell.
According to Nalini Naidoo, director of communications and economic development with the City of Yellowknife, the city has not received any formal complaints regarding traffic circulation around Mary Brown's, and a traffic study was not required for the restaurant's development permit application.
"Generally speaking, the Planning and Development Department has not typically required a traffic study for commercial development on existing Old Airport Road properties," she wrote in an e-mail to Yellowknifer.
"New commercial developments on Old Airport Road are considered natural growth for the Old Airport Road area."
According to Naidoo, the city looked at the area in 2007 as part of the Smart Growth Development Plan Transportation Improvement Study, and that intersection was deemed satisfactory.
She also stated to Yellowknifer that Mary Brown's permit application conformed with the city's zoning bylaw.
"With the growth scenario discussed in an existing transportation report, typically a development permit review does not require further traffic study for commercial development on existing Old Airport Road properties," Naidoo stated.
"It is the case for this 24-seat restaurant development, as well as a previously approved commercial development on the same side of Old Airport Road across the street from Canadian Tire."
While this city has no plan in place currently to make changes to the intersection, if the city receives complaints from residents, the appropriate departments would assess the best way to address those concerns.
