CRESTVIEW — Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard, who’s said the city’s present law “doesn’t have a lot of teeth in it,” drafted a mobile vendors ordinance.
Here are the proposal’s stated objectives:
●Encourage and aid business development, for small business owners and entrepreneurs, while protecting established businesses’ interests.
●Ensure locations don’t create unsafe or unsanitary conditions.
●Ensure vehicle parking or equipment placement doesn’t hinder public amenity and the area’s streetscape
●Establish regulations governing the location, promote a successful business, and protect residents’ and property owners’ interests.
“It will benefit our area,” Gaillard said. “We will encourage this development for small business owners and entrepreneurs while permitting the brick-and-mortar business owners.”
The ordinance received mixed reception during discussion at a July 25 City Council workshop. Councilmen generally liked the intent to rein in some unfettered temporary merchandise sales.
Councilmen Bill Cox and Doug Faircloth particularly criticized out-of-town dealerships coming to Crestview and having short-term used car sales.
“These car dealers come in and set up on vacant lots, and the city's not making anything from it,” Cox said.
City leaders did question some quirks in the draft. For example, the ordinance twice states, “No type of business or sales shall be conducted on a vacant parcel or lot.”
“How can you have a vendor on any property that isn't vacant?” City Clerk Betsy Roy. “How can you set up a temporary business on anything but a vacant lot? Where else would they set up?”
Gaillard said the draft, which a Tallahassee law firm prepared, carried over the provision from the city’s existing ordinance.
The preliminary document is intended to launch such conversations, she said.
“This is just a general, we're-ready-to-talk-about-this point,” Gaillard said.
City attorney Ben Holley questioned a section in the proposed ordinance restricting sales on private property.
“It appears to me if you own a piece of property and it's properly zoned for what you want to do there, we can't stop them,” Holley said. “Otherwise you're restricting people’s use of their property.”
“You don't need any of this if you can't have it on a vacant lot,” Roy said.
Some already-licensed local vendors whose businesses would fall under the new ordinance also questioned some of its provisions.
Naaman Eicher, pitmaster at Buddy’s View BBQ, said another provision in the draft ordinance defeats the way his business operates.
“The way it is styled at the moment will eliminate my ability to be a drive-through, and my entire business plan is based around a drive-through,” Eicher said.
Eicher said mobile food trucks and trailers are “an extremely fast-growing business around the country and around the area,” and the city should support them.
He encouraged city leaders to hear from vendors “rather than having it written strictly by regulators” as the ordinance is refined.
“I would’ve begun by talking to the business owners,” Eicher said. “It would seem that vendor input would encourage growth.”
A proposed mobile vendor ordinance affects these types of vendors:
Mobile food dispensing vehicle: “Any vehicle-mounted public food service establishment which is self-propelled or otherwise movable from place to place and includes self-contained utilities”; a food truck or trailer.
Peddler: “Any person who shall carry from place to place any goods, wares or merchandise which may be immediately delivered.” Includes food carts and ice cream trucks.
Seasonal vendor: “Any vendor whose goods, wares or merchandise … are seasonally grown or related to seasonal celebrations and occurrences, including but not limited to Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Fourth of July, farm and grove produce.”
Self-sufficient mobile food dispensing vehicle: “A mobile food dispensing vehicle that contains…a three-compartment sink…; a separate hand-wash sink; adequate refrigeration and storage capacity; full provision of power utilities…; a potable water holding tank; and a liquid waste disposal system.”
Solicitor: People who “request, directly or indirectly, for money, property, financial assistance, or any other thing of value on the plea or representation that … it will be used for a charitable purpose or will benefit a charitable organization or sponsor.”
Transient Vendor: “Any such business that may be operated or conducted by persons, firms, or corporations … who reside away from the city or who have fixed places of business in places other than the city, or who have their headquarters in places other than the city, or who move stocks of goods, merchandise or samples thereof into the city with the purpose or intention of removing them or the unsold portion thereof away from the city before the expiration of 14 days.”
Source: City of Crestview
WHO'S AFFECTED?
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview developing rules for mobile food vendors, solicitors, car sales