Our Voice: Pasco wise to accommodate mobile vendor
We were pleased to see how receptive the city of Pasco was when asked to revisit a zoning issue.
What made sense a few years ago doesn’t always translate to present day. But often, councils seem reluctant to look at the rules with fresh eyes or hear out the matters that often impact small business owners.
Owning a small business can be a precarious proposition with the tightest of profit margins, and the least little change from outside forces can cause giant-sized problems.
Pasco had mistakenly been issuing a temporary business permit to WE Ice, a popular shaved ice vendor with two successful seasons under its belt at an open lot on Burden Boulevard.
WE Ice has operated its trailer at the site from mid-March through the summer season. The problem is they were too close to another itinerant vendor, a taco truck parked outside Viera’s Bakery.
If you operate a temporary business in Pasco, the rules are different depending on location. In the Burden Boulevard and Road 68 and Road 100 corridor, those types of vendors could not be within 500 feet of each other. In other parts of Pasco, that requirement typically shrinks to 250 feet.
WE Ice and the taco vendor were 370 apart, and the taco vendor was there first. The city notified WE Ice last year of the problem, and the owners looked elsewhere for a place to park their business.
When they came up with a location in Richland, Pasco fans of WE Ice were not pleased. The only option for the WE Ice owners to stay where their fans wanted them was to ask the city for a change in the zoning. WE Ice patrons turned out at meetings on the matter at the planning commission and the city council.
With the proliferation and popularity of food trucks around the nation, we think taking another look at the zoning was a wise decision. What is trendy now wasn’t so much when the original zoning was approved.
City staff recommended a change to 300 feet, and the council agreed. WE Ice will stay in Pasco, as well as operate at special events with its two trailers.
Temporary and food truck businesses in other cities in our region haven’t been so lucky, with some forced to relocate and some forced to take permanent root rather than roam to comply with city standards.
We understand that mobile vendors bring a different set of issues for cities than brick and mortar stores. But they are also becoming an increasingly important building block for folks who’d like to someday evolve their operations into permanent locations, or into a fleet of food trucks.
If you’ve tried to book food trucks for an event in the Tri-Cities, you’re well aware of the demand for their services.
If you look at cities like Portland, entire parking lots have been converted to food truck hubs with less than a few feet between the vendors. If they’re clean on the inside and reasonable on the outside and the food is good, that’s what matters. If they’re worth giving up parking in downtowns across the country, we might want to rethink how we handle food trucks across the Tri-Cities.
Maybe zoning that allows for clusters of the businesses makes more sense than creating distance between them. It makes sense from a consumer standpoint to be able to try different fares from different vendors. That’s been proven with the success of Food Truck Fridays in downtown Pasco.
We appreciate Pasco’s willingness to hear the issue and make the change. Now maybe a broader vision for temporary or mobile vendors is in order.
This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Our Voice: Pasco wise to accommodate mobile vendor."