photo by Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph Braum's employee Andrew Davis makes a double scoop ice cream cone at the store on S. Broadway Ave. in Tyler Thursday.

A new ice cream store at the corner of Loop 323 and West Elm Street has received the green light.

The Tyler City Council approved a zoning change on Wednesday that facilitates a new location for Braum’s Ice Cream.

The vote came after people who live nearby told the City Council that the commercial use of the property would interrupt their neighborhood.

“To have development in the northwest section of the community, especially on the Loop, is a very good thing overall for the community, so I’m happy to see that,” Mayor Martin Heines said after the vote.

The plan is to build a 6,000-square-foot building with one driveway leading to Loop 323 and the other to West Elm. A wall would be built between the building and the closest residential property.

Councilman Ed Moore, who represents the area, made the motion to approve the zoning change. He said he met with people concerned about the development and weighed what they said.

One concern related to land documents, which Moore said is outside of the City Council’s purview. Another proposal was to decrease the size of the establishment to 5,400 square feet, which Moore said would not drastically change the building.

Glenda Stewart, who lives on the closest property to West Elm, said the area has been filling up with fast food restaurants that are noisy. She described the sound of a garbage truck lifting an industrial-sized dumpster waking her up in the morning. 

“We already have one fast-food restaurant in that area which involves traffic, trash in the yards and the smell of grease,” Stewart said. She said traffic at the nearby Popeye’s sometimes ends up in the street.

She said the building would be larger than other fast food restaurants, open from 6 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. seven days a week, and bring more traffic to the area than it already has. 

Mark Priestner, of Planning Concepts, represented Braum’s at the meeting. He said the owner has made changes to the original plan in order to accommodate others in the neighborhood.

That includes a brick wall near Stewart’s property about 7 feet high, or a slightly different height based on her preferences. He said the dual entrances are designed to help with traffic concerns.

“As we get to the point when we’re constructing it, we would work with her on the height, whatever she wants to make that work,” Priestner said of the wall.

Councilman Don Warren told Stewart that fast food restaurants have moved into his neighborhood since he bought his house, but the convenience of being able to get a slice of pizza outweighs the sound of the dumpster.

“It’s just hard to turn something away that’s going to be, I think, good for the west part of Tyler,” Warren said.

Councilman Bob Westbrook, who owned Cici’s Pizza, said he built a restaurant branch in the northwestern part of Tyler 15 years ago out of a desire to increase opportunities

“To better serve the population on the north side of Tyler, we needed to be there,” Westbrook said. “We knew that we would be bringing some increased job opportunities to the area but also providing some dining and retail opportunities.”

He added: “I’m actually excited about the development coming in. It’s a neighborhood restaurant. It’s a family restaurant. It’s also a grocery store.”

Councilwoman Linda Sellers said this was the third time the city has looked at a Braum’s development, and the previous two did not get built.

One was proposed on Old Jacksonville Highway, and the other on Broadway Avenue, she said. However, she said the current property had different zoning, so there was no way to block this development.

“I can’t see any reason that we couldn’t approve this one,” Sellers said. “I just didn’t know if the other members remember that.”

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