Permitted mobile food vendors are now allowed to operate more freely and longer in the City of Sequim.
City councilors unanimously approved an ordinance at their July 10 meeting to update Sequim Municipal Code’s (18.65) “Mobile Food Service Vendor” policy, and loosen restrictions enacted in 2012.
The change will go into effect later this week, city staff said.
According to Charisse Deschenes, Sequim’s director of community development and economic development, the most significant changes to the policy include opening up areas vendors can operate in nonresidential zones, and that the trucks can be in one spot for more than four hours so long as they leave at the end of each work day.
Provisions were put in place in 2012 because some city councilors and business owners felt mobile food vendors would negatively impact brick and mortar restaurants’ business in the city’s downtown core.
Permitted mobile vendors weren’t allowed to operate between Fifth Avenue and Brown Road. They were not allowed to operate for more than four hours in one location, and couldn’t return to that site within 48 hours.
Current city councilors requested fast-tracking a change to the city code in January after Southern Nibble’s co-owner Caleb Messinger advocated to the council for the change.
In an email interview, Messinger said, “We needed this code changed for a fair opportunity to make it.”
Southern Nibble owners want to expand, he said, but it’s been difficult the first two years as they’ve had to wait for state approval to operate, and have been operating “on the outskirts of the town.”
Messinger and his wife are the only employees as they’re paying off their food truck, he said.
“We are barely are making it,” he said.
Messinger said they hope to operate Southern Nibble from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and Washington Street, and when school starts again they’ll be on site for lunch only.
They also plan to have Southern Nibble available for Sequim High School varsity sporting events, and offer varsity athletes and coaches free pre-game meals, he said.
During Sequim Lavender Weekend July 21-23, it will be at Olympic Bluffs Cider and Lavender Farm, 1025 Finn Hall Road.
Prior to the code change, the city only had one permitted mobile food vendor, Ulivo Pizzeria, a business that operated under code provisions at Blue Sky Realty. Co-owner Andrea Mingiano wrote via email Ulivo will be at all Music in the Park events from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesdays in July and August at Carrie Blake Community Park.
Mingiano added Ulivo Pizzeria is in the middle of a busy private catering season through October and not planning “any drastic changes in our schedule, but we’ll reconsider in winter, probably beginning of next year.”
Deschenes said via email before the new code changes go into effect, the city must publish the ordinance. and update the application, process and procedures.
Mobile food vendors will need to reapply under the new code, city staff said.
Asked about code enforcement by Mayor Tom Ferrell, Deschenes said permits were already required for all mobile food vendors, and if a vendor isn’t following guidelines someone would have to call the city and they’d respond as they’re “not actively out looking for violations at this time.”
As for sanitation and health guidelines, she said Clallam County would cover those, and the city would cover zoning issues.
Deschenes said previously that mobile food vendors seen in the city were likely operating under special event permits.
Public hearing
The city council public hearing was delayed to July 10 due to various factors, including a required Department of Commerce review, and a 14-day comment period for the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Determination of Non-significance (DNS).
Two people commented, one for and one against.
Bret Wirta, Sequim Black Bear Diner owner, wrote he feels allowing mobile food vendors is unfair to brick-and-mortar restaurants because of taxes, safety requirements and other factors he must meet while mobile food vendors do not.
“Food trucks will siphon off our customers during the busy season, which we use to bankroll enough cash to get us through the winter,” Wirta wrote.
“Food trucks will pack up and leave during the slow times while we continue to pay salaries, expenses, and taxes during the rest of the year — often using savings to meet these costs.
“It isn’t easy running a restaurant today, but more than that, this is a fairness issue.”
Sequim area resident Ed Hackie wrote to the city that “people want to be fed and have a greater desire to be somewhere where there is a variety of food choices.”
He added that having no food trucks during First Friday Art Walk when other restaurants are closed “doesn’t enhance commerce for hardly anyone.”
Hackie wrote, “Food trucks would enhance not detract from the community. Look at other localities and their festivals and see the positive effects of food trucks.”
There was no public comment at the latest Sequim Planning Commission or city council’s public hearings on mobile food vendors.
However, the planning commission held multiple meetings in February and March on the subject, including a March 21 meeting where most public speakers spoke in favor of a code change.
