Local Businesses Victorious in Nantucket

Wendy Hudson of Nantucket Bookworks and other local business owners on Nantucket Island, off the Massachusetts coast, recently learned that an ordinance to keep chain stores out of the island's historic downtown had received the state's stamp of approval.

Back in April, the proposal to amend Nantucket's zoning laws to keep chain stores out of the island's historic downtown went unchallenged, resulting in its adoption by the town, pending approval by the state attorney general. Last week, the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror reported that the Massachusetts state attorney general's office had approved the amendment with no substantive changes.

In early 2005, Hudson first raised the issue of amending Chapter 139 of the Code of the Town of Nantucket. The amendment was proposed to keep "formula businesses" -- defined, in part, as retail sales establishments, restaurants, taverns, bars, or take-out food establishments that are under common ownership or control or that are a franchise with 14 or more businesses or establishments worldwide -- from opening in Nantucket's historic downtown. (Read more.) --David Grogan