The Hermiston City Council came to a general consensus Monday night on amending the rules governing mobile food vendors and will take action on the proposed changes at its Aug. 26 meeting.
The council is revisiting the mobile vending rules after hearing from prospective vendors about the difficulty of getting a license to operate within the city limits.
City Manager Byron Smith said the Planning Department has also heard from individuals who are frustrated at the inability to locate a food truck on Highway 395 due to the requirement that trucks must be 400 feet from a brick-and-mortar restaurant as well as another food truck.
City Planner Clint Spencer said that requirement makes it virtually impossible to find an available space on Highway 395. He said Hermiston’s rules are more restrictive than other cities.
“Of the eastern Oregon cities I surveyed, none of them had a spacing requirement,” Spencer said.
City staff has proposed several rule changes aimed at making it easier to obtain a license.
The changes include offering four types of licenses. Type 1 is for a food vendor operating a temporary restaurant from a tent, pushcart or other conveyance of less than 100 square feet. A Type 1 license is valid for 30 days at any one location.
Type 2 licenses are for vendors operating from a self-contained truck or trailer and is valid for one year and may be renewed for the same location. The site must be vacated for 24 hours at least once a week.
Type 3 licenses are issued for temporary, non-recurring events such as street fairs, carnivals or similar events.
Type 4 licenses are for vendors operating from a self-contained truck or trailer and primarily serve workers or employees at that site.
The proposed rules eliminate the 400-foot spacing requirement, and instead the city will limit the number of available licenses.
There will be three available Type 1 licenses, six available Type 2 licenses, no limits for Type 3 licenses, and two available Type 4 licenses.
Also eliminated is the requirement that trucks be painted white or a neutral color.
“The food truck culture is a little more colorful than beige,” Smith said.
Councilor Jackie Linton said she preferred to keep the 400-foot-spacing requirement.
“Hermiston is a pretty town,” Linton said. “You go to other cities and it just doesn’t look good because there are too many pods on the street corner. I don’t want to see that happening here.”
She said she was concerned about having as many as six vendors lined up along Highway 395.
Spencer said there are currently three active mobile food trucks with a Type 2 license and a fourth soon to be in operation. One is located on Cornell Place by Walmart, another is located near Greg’s Sleep Center off Highway 395 and a third is directly north of the current food pod on Orchard Avenue. The fourth will operate at the 11th Street Market location. That would leave just two available Type 2 licenses for the city to give out to prospective vendors.
Councilor Roy Barron said he supports the proposed changes. He said every constituent he’s heard from is in support of eliminating the spacing requirement.
Councilor Doug Primmer said he supports some sort of spacing requirement to prevent Main Street from “becoming one food truck after another.”
City Councilor Nancy Peterson said having a diverse number of food pods helps bring people together.
“When you have a couple of food trucks next to each other and a bunch of people standing outside eating lunch and you’ve got that diversification opportunity, then you’ve got a chance for the community to become tighter,” Peterson said. “People of different cultures interacting face to face helps a community grow together. And that’s one of the things these trucks provide.”
The council also heard from Tyler Bendixsen. He and his wife operate Soda Craze and have been trying to get a license to operate in town without any luck. He said they are restricted to operating in Hermiston only during special events.
He said they have been welcomed by other cities, including Umatilla and Stanfield, but want to have a regular business presence in Hermiston.
“We are here tonight to show our support for amending the city ordinances to ease the burdens placed upon prospective mobile food vending entrepreneurs,” Bendixsen said. “We wholeheartedly endorse these proposed amendments.”
Smith said the council will take action on the proposed changes at the Aug. 26 council meeting.
