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City
Council Report |
City Council Meeting: June 21,
2011
Agenda Item: 4-A
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Andy Agle,
Director of Housing and Economic Development
Subject: Mobile Vending Trucks
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the
City Council consider issues relating to mobile vending truck operations and
give direction to staff:
1. To assess the need for additional on-street regulations
regarding parking time limits and/or prohibitions, where needed, for public
safety;
2. To return to Council with recommendations regarding
proposals to the State legislature to amend the Vehicle Code to allow local
governments authority to establish special designations for on-street mobile
vending;
3. To return to Council with recommendations regarding the permitting
process for off-street mobile food vending trucks on specific sites.
Executive Summary
The presence of mobile vending
trucks, especially food vending trucks, has increased in recent years. Businesses in Santa Monica have complained
that these trucks block visibility to their stores and create unfair
competition. This report presents issues related to mobile vending trucks
operating on public streets and on private property, and offers options for
Council to consider in developing a mobile vending truck policy. Also included
in this report is a discussion of the laws that regulate mobile vending trucks,
both locally and at the State level, the approaches used in nearby cities to
manage mobile vending trucks, and the results of published reports and the
intercept survey conducted at the weekly food truck event operating at the
California Heritage Museum. The focus of the report is on food vending trucks,
although retail vending trucks would be subject to many of the same
considerations.
This report finds that, given
State law, the City is limited in regulating location, times and duration of
food vending trucks on the street. To
respond to community concerns, the City can modify existing on-street parking restrictions
for public safety purposes. In addition,
the City can lobby for state legislation to allow cities to deal specifically
with mobile vending trucks. Finally,
this report recommends that the City Council create a permanent permitting
mechanism to ensure that off-street mobile food vending supports the broadest
community objectives.
Background
On January 4, 2010, the City’s Code Compliance staff received a
complaint regarding the use of a vacant lot at 1401 Santa Monica Boulevard for
a staging area for food vending trucks.
The use was not permitted at the subject site, which is in the C4
Highway Commercial District. The City
issued a Notice of Violation to the property owner for violating the provisions
of the Zoning Ordinance as well as other Municipal Code provisions related to business
operations. A January 7, 2010
Council Information Item provided information on the specific Code violations
and noted ordinance amendments that would be required to allow the use. On January
19, 2010, the City Council directed staff to examine options for
authorizing food vending truck operations on private property and to propose a
mechanism to allow these trucks to operate on a temporary basis, subject to
operational conditions. During this test
period, staff would assess the potential long-term issues and determine if
on-going operation was warranted. An August
11, 2010 Council Information Item outlined the existing Temporary Use
Permit process as the permit mechanism to authorize short-term food vending
truck operations.
In September 2011,
the Zoning Administrator granted the California Heritage Museum a Temporary Use
Permit (“TUP”) to operate a weekly food truck court in the parking area of the
museum located on Main Street and Ocean Park Boulevard. The TUP included
conditions that would ensure neighborhood compatibility in relation to:
·
Hours of operation
·
Restroom availability
·
Security
·
Refuse and recycling requirements
·
Bicycle parking
·
Signage
·
Lighting and noise
In addition to the
Heritage Museum, the City granted another TUP for a weekly food truck event at
14th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. However, the TUP has not been executed.
The weekly Heritage
Museum food truck event has been carefully evaluated and the results of that
evaluation and other research are presented to expand the Council’s
understanding of the impact of mobile vending truck operations within the City.
Discussion
Traditional food vending trucks, or “loncheras,” have operated for
years, servicing locations such as construction sites and factories where
access to restaurants is limited. These mobile food trucks are better known for
offering simple fare, and for staking out a single spot where they may do
business for the entire workday on a daily basis. As the manufacturing sector has decreased,
fewer lonchera operators are making multiple short stops, as was the practice
30 or 40 years ago.
Food vending trucks offering a range of dining choices are a
relatively new phenomenon whose popularity has spread across the United
States. These newcomers, also known as
“Twitter trucks,” are a distinct branch of the traditional food vending trucks.
They are highly visible mobile kitchens that offer a broad range of innovative
dining choices. Typically,
these food trucks park in popular commercial areas for varying lengths of time,
then travel to a new location, often communicating the new destination to their
customers through Twitter and other social media.
There are several types of food vending vehicles:
· Push carts are non-motorized and operate on sidewalks.
· Trailers are non-motorized and are towed behind vehicles.
· Mini-trucks are small motorized trucks large enough for one or two
people to operate with on-board power or refrigeration.
· Food Trucks are large, motorized trucks, considered a kitchen on
wheels with on-board power, a refrigeration unit, and are large enough for
three to four people to operate.
While food vending trucks have gained popularity, their owners and
operators have acknowledged the need to work with municipalities to develop and
maintain positive relations with the cities in which they do business. One of these efforts has been the creation,
in January 2010, of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association
(“SoCalMFVA”). Currently, the
association’s membership exceeds one hundred mobile food trucks. This organization is an advocacy group whose
attention is focused on the regulatory issues that mobile food trucks are
facing on a daily basis. The
organization helps to coordinate the food trucks that are present at the California
Heritage Museum’s Tuesday evening food truck event.
Mobile Food Vendor Regulations
Mobile vendors that operate on public streets within the City are
governed by both State and local law.
The California Vehicle Code and Article 3 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code
(SMMC) contain broad-based vehicle regulations, such as no parking zones,
vehicle size and parking time limits, and parking meter, parking space, and
preferential parking restrictions, which apply to all vehicles. All mobile vendors operating on City streets
must comply with these generally applicable regulations. Any failure to comply with these
restrictions, including feeding the meters in excess of the allowed time
limits, would result in a parking citation, which is a civil penalty. The City’s Municipal Code provides that each
day counts as a separate and independent violation (SMMC Section
1.08.010). If a vehicle is parked beyond
one day (24 hours) with a parking violation, that vehicle would receive additional,
citable violations. However, a vehicle
that is parked in one spot all day (for example, eight hours in a two-hour
zone) would receive only one citation.
The California Vehicle Code grants local governments
significant authority to impose generally applicable parking regulations on public
streets. The City is therefore free to
impose additional parking regulations that affect all vehicles equally. However, the Vehicle Code limits local
governments’ ability to specifically regulate mobile food or non-food vendors
on public streets to their detriment unless there is a public safety
concern. Courts have consistently struck
down mobile vending regulations enacted by other municipalities that rely on
other justifications, such as the need to protect local brick-and-mortar
businesses from mobile competition.
Nevertheless, the California Vehicle Code does allow the City to provide
favorable treatment for on-street parking of vending trucks by designating
areas specifically for food or non-food vending trucks. However, designating special areas for
vending trucks would not prohibit these trucks from parking in other legal
parking spaces.
With respect to mobile food vendors, the California Retail Food
Code and the Los Angeles County Public Health regulations provide additional
restrictions governing the vending of edible items. Most notably, California Health and Safety
Code (Cal Code) Section 114315 requires all mobile food facilities that are
stopped and conducting business for more than one hour to operate within 200
feet of an approved, readily available, and fully functioning restroom
facility. If the restroom is within a
business, the food truck operator must have written permission from the
business owner to use the restroom. This
requirement ensures that restroom facilities are available to the food truck’s
employees. Recently, Los Angeles County
adopted Ordinance 2010-0045, which imposes enhanced regulations on mobile food
facilities. On February
8, 2011, the Santa Monica City Council amended the City’s municipal code to
incorporate these new County public health and food safety laws by adopting
Ordinance No. 2346. These regulations
require:
(1) mobile
food vendors to be rated on the same letter-grading scheme as regular
restaurants;
(2) County Health Inspectors to
increase the number of annual inspections for each mobile food vendor from one
to two, with a sanitation grade card (A, B, or C) to be issued after each
inspection;
(3)
mobile food vendors to file a “Mobile Food Facility Route Sheet” with the
County, which details the arrival and departure times for each location where
retail food business will be conducted.
Mobile vendors operating on City streets are also required to
comply with Chapter 6.36 of the SMMC, which states that these vendors must
obtain a vendor permit and a business license in order to operate within the
City limits. SMMC Section 6.36.100
provides a list of additional requirements, including:
(1) location restrictions (e.g. not
close to bus stops, intersections or other vendors);
(2) clean-up responsibilities; and
(3) noise
limits.
More than 150 food vending trucks are licensed to operate in Santa
Monica. To operate, mobile food trucks
pay $50 for a business license, $25 for a Police Permit, $107.16 for
fingerprinting, and $25.83 for fingerprinting processing, for a total of
$207.99 for a new permit and $100.83 for renewals. Mobile food operators must also pay for an LA
County Public Health Permit (114381, LA County Code – Title 8.8.04.580), a
monthly charge for a parking space at a commissary (where health regulations
require that a food vehicle be stored, cleaned and serviced every day), the
capital costs of a kitchen-equipped vehicle, which can range from $30,000 for a
used vehicle to well over $100,000 for a new one, and maintenance costs. Mobile food truck operators are responsible
for paying sales tax on the revenue they generate in each municipality where
they operate. The sales tax revenue
generated from mobile vending trucks is deposited into a County pool and
distributed to the City in accordance with a formula.
Mobile Food Vending on Public Streets and
Community Concerns
At its November 19, 2009 Board meeting, Downtown Santa Monica,
Inc. (formerly known as the Bayside District Corporation) recommended that the
City Council consider limiting the
location and number of mobile vending trucks operating in the City, to review
permitting fees, and assess the operational issues and environmental impacts of
these trucks.
The nature of the complaints voiced by Santa Monica businesses
regarding vending trucks are similar to those heard in other communities around
the country where vending trucks frequent popular areas with well-established
brick-and-mortar businesses. The
concerns raised by Santa Monica’s business organizations generally fall within
the following categories:
· public
safety
· community
impacts
· economic
impacts
Public
safety concerns have been raised about drivers making
illegal maneuvers to access vending trucks and pedestrians walking into the
streets to avoid food-truck customers who are blocking the adjacent
sidewalks. Another safety concern is
that parked vending trucks obstruct law enforcement officers’ views into area
businesses. There are also public safety
concerns that are unique to particular areas, such as the presence of food
trucks on Pennsylvania Avenue between 26th Street and Stewart
Street, where the absence of sidewalks can force pedestrians to congregate in
the street, at risk from vehicular traffic.
On Main Street, problems have been reported when patrons
congregate around food trucks after the bars close at 2:00 am. The Santa Monica
Police Department reports an increase in complaints from neighbors and has
responded to numerous disturbing-the-peace incidents during these early morning
hours, which they attribute to the late night presence of food trucks. The bar patrons who congregate around the
food trucks can be loud and have engaged in fights and other malicious
behaviors.
Community
impact concerns focus on security, trash collection,
and general public nuisance concerns such as odors permeating the surrounding
area, limited access to restroom facilities for both employees and patrons, and
proximity and respect for the nearby community.
The economic impact
concerns include competition with established restaurants as a result of the
lower prices that vending trucks can charge because they do not have the same
overhead as brick-and-mortar restaurants (i.e., rent or special assessment fees
that have been used to make the area attractive for customers). Mobile vending
trucks also occupy scarce on-street customer parking for long periods that
include the time when they are using support vehicles to “save the space” until
the vending truck arrives. This practice
was recently reported by a restaurant owner on Ocean Park Boulevard, who noted
that food trucks remain parked for long periods of time in the nine-hour
metered parking spaces that are meant for the students at The Art Institute of
California.
Mobile Food Vending at City-Sponsored Events
The SMMC prohibits all vending activity in public parks (SMMC
6.36.100). Through the Special Event
Permit process, mobile food vending trucks have been invited to participate in
city-sponsored events held on public property such as Glow, the Airport Art
Walk, and most recently the 2011 Santa Monica Festival.
Off-Street Food Vending Operations
An innovation used in other cities, and being tested in Santa
Monica, has been to allow food vending trucks to operate on private
property. At the request of property
owners or tenants, food vending trucks regularly operate in a number of
off-street locations throughout the City, including Santa Monica Business Park
and Bergamot Station.
The California Heritage Museum has sponsored an off-street food
vending program each Tuesday evening since September 21, 2010. The weekly event, organized with the
assistance of the SoCalMFVA, occurs in the parking lot at 2640 Main
Street. The property is City-owned, but
leased on a long-term basis to Ocean Park Restaurant Corporation (The
Victorian). The food truck operation is
subject to the conditions set forth in a Temporary Use Permit that establishes
the maximum number of food trucks at ten, the time for setup and take down, a
requirement for bike valet, and a prohibition against serving alcohol. The food
truck operation is a fundraiser for the Museum, which charges each food truck
vendor $100 per week. The original TUP
has been extended to allow time to analyze the impacts and benefits of the food
truck operations, receive public comment, and solicit direction from Council.
About 400-500 patrons attend the California Heritage Museum food
truck gathering each week. Customers sit on the patio of The Victorian, on café
tables on the Museum lawn, or in the Tavern, The Victorian’s basement
restaurant. The Museum reports that the
program is extremely successful, both from the perspective of increasing
awareness of the Museum and creating a new income stream.
Outreach and Research
Members of the public, including the Main Street Business
Improvement Association (“MSBIA”), have expressed concern about the Heritage
Museum food truck operation. Originally, MSBIA supported a trial event for
Monday evenings, when patronage of Main Street restaurants was said to be
low. At the request of the California
Heritage Museum, the event was authorized for Tuesday evenings. To evaluate
concerns from the community, customers of the food truck program, as well as
Main Street businesses, were surveyed and asked for their impressions of the
program.
The consulting firm of Maureen Erbeznik & Associates was
retained to survey the California Heritage Museum food truck patrons and nearby
Main Street businesses. Interviews were conducted with 201 food truck patrons
and 25 Main Street businesses with 16 of the businesses being restaurants. Among the questions the survey was seeking to
answer were the following:
1. What are the characteristics of the Heritage Museum food truck
patrons? Are these patrons likely to
patronize other Main Street retail or food establishments on that night or
other nights?
2. What is the impact of the food truck court on Tuesday nights to nearby
Main Street businesses?
Attachment A is a full copy of the consultant’s report on the survey findings, including the survey questions. Survey statistics revealed that the Heritage Museum’s Tuesday night food truck event appears to attract a large percentage of its patrons from beyond the immediate Ocean Park neighborhood. However, these patrons appear to have ties to the area as most of the food truck patrons reported that they found out about the event by walking by the Museum and seeing the advertising banner. Patrons are younger, with 67 percent surveyed being under the age of 40, and 33 percent of total patrons being between the ages of 21 and 30. The food truck customers indicated that they spend $20 or less during each visit. This price point competes with many of the Main Street restaurants as 13 of the 16 restaurants surveyed reported that their average meal rate was under $20. The survey respondents revealed that although the Heritage Museum food truck event is what brought them to the area on Tuesday nights, they do visit other Main Street businesses before or after eating at the food trucks and they return to patronize Main Street businesses on other nights.
While most of the 25 businesses surveyed realized that the
food truck event is a fundraiser for the Heritage Museum, 40 percent of them
did not want the event to continue. Of
the restaurants surveyed, 63 percent did not want the event to continue and 50
percent indicated that they noticed a decrease in business on Tuesday nights
since the food truck event began.
In addition to reviewing this survey, staff has monitored
complaints. The complaints about the California Heritage Museum food truck
program have been expressed through the MSBIA, whose concern focuses on
competition and the public parking being used by food truck patrons at the
expense of patrons of storefront restaurants. An email from MSBIA is included
as Attachment B.
Unfortunately, the financial impact on storefront businesses
cannot be ascertained through sales tax information as that data is available
only on a monthly basis.
Staff surveyed ten nearby cities on their regulations and
practices for managing mobile vending trucks.
Additionally, staff reviewed studies to better understand how other
cities on a national level are managing mobile vending facilities. These studies concluded that mobile food
trucks and similar vendors that conduct business in an appropriate location and
in a safe and responsible manner can be an asset to the local community. Other communities have made recommendations
regarding how to create off-street food truck areas that would activate
underutilized spaces, attract people, and protect public health and safety,
while also providing a means to monitor community and economic impacts. For more detail, see Attachment C.
Policy Considerations for Council
There is an increasing demand for mobile food trucks and for
off-street areas where food trucks may congregate. The following are options that the Council
may wish to consider in developing policies surrounding on- and off-street
vending truck activities.
On-Street
Vending Trucks
On-street vending trucks, especially food vending trucks, respond
to customers who want lower cost, grab-and-go, informal dining. However, public safety concerns warrant
closer management of where mobile vending trucks park. Additional changes,
requiring the amendment of State law, would allow the City to further regulate
where mobile vending can occur. To
better manage the locations of on-street parking available to mobile vending
trucks, where warranted, the following options are available:
· Create no-parking zones, reduce parking space size, and restrict
time limits to prevent parking by any vehicle, including mobile vending trucks,
in areas where parking is unsafe. For
example, on Main Street, adjusting the no-parking time from 3:00 am to 2:00 am
would prevent food trucks from becoming an attractive nuisance and allow the
Police Department to direct the food trucks to move away.
· Explore the adoption of a graduated parking citation system,
similar to the one proposed in the City of Los Angeles, that would cite
vehicles parked in violation of posted regulations more than once per day. A graduated parking citation fine system for
multiple citations would be applicable to all motorists and could eventually
make it uneconomic for some repeat offenders, including those who may not be
mobile vendors.
· Recommend that the State Vehicle Code be amended to allow cities
the authority to govern locations, time and duration of on-street vending
operations.
Off-Street
Vending Trucks
Off-street food vending programs have been well received in such
diverse cities as West Hollywood, Seattle, Portland and Cincinnati, where they attract
customers to underserved areas, create “eyes and ears” on the street, and
provide entrepreneurial opportunities for start-up businesses.
If Council is supportive of allowing vending trucks on private
property and moving forward with a permitting process, the following options
are available:
· Food vs. Retail Vending Trucks:
Special permits for off-street vending could be limited to food vending
trucks to prevent the proliferation of retail vending trucks.
· Permitting: Staff could
return with options for permitting off-street mobile vending operations,
including administrative processes using the Performance Standard Permits or
Use Permit, or through a discretionary process such as a Conditional Use
Permit. Any permitting mechanism used
would include special conditions or standards.
Staff would consult with interested parties, including the SoCalMFVA.
· Appropriate Area: Staff
could return to Council with recommendations related to locating off-street
mobile food vending operations in specific zone districts, in areas of the City
that are underserved or have few amenities, or only on specific sites.
· Community Benefits:
Operators of off-street mobile food vending truck programs could be
asked to provide community benefits, such as support of a local non-profit
organization.
· Business License Fees, Permits and Special Assessments: Any
increase in the Business License Tax or creation of special assessment fees for
mobile vending trucks would be subject to Proposition 218, and require a public
vote.
· Conditions: Conditions that could be considered in the granting of
a permit for off-street food vending would need to be site-specific and could
address the following: number of trucks
and patron capacity, signage, noise, parking, provision of bike valet and other
amenities, lighting, security, and frequency of the event.
· Heritage Museum Food Truck Event:
Until a new process for allowing off-street vending operations is
formally adopted, allow the TUP for the Heritage Museum Food Vending Program to
be extended.
Financial
Impacts and Budget Actions
This report does not have any financial impacts. However, future
actions of the Council may result in impacts to the City’s revenues and/or
costs.
Prepared by: Erika Cavicante, Senior
Development Analyst
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Approved: |
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Forwarded to Council: |
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Andy Agle, Director Housing and Economic Development |
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Rod Gould City Manager |
Attachments: