Anchorage municipal officials met Thursday at City Hall to discuss the growing popularity of roving food vendors -- food trucks -- that pull up to construction sites, private parking lots, and sometimes, on city streets. A simmering dispute between one mobile food truck vendor and a nearby restaurant initiated the unofficial working group's meeting. In Anchorage, as in other large cities, mobile food trucks are a growing and popular trend.
But how should they be regulated when operating out of a parking space or along the public right-of-way? That question is at the center of the back-and forth between the owner of downtown Anchorage's Brown Bag Sandwich Co. and the Urban Bamboo food truck, which frequently parks in front of the Avenue Bar on 4th Avenue, near C Street, to serve the downtown lunch crowd.
Managers at the bar say they want the truck there, and point to its offering of food after 10 p.m. -- when most downtown restaurants are closed -- as a good thing. The Avenue wants its patrons to be able to get something to eat after they have been drinking, claiming it makes the streets safer and helps prevent drunken driving. But the truck has been the subject of several complaints called into the Anchorage Police Department and the parking authority, as well as several episodes of vandalism.
Every police visit has ended without citation and without the food truck being asked to leave. But its continued presence has put a spotlight on the current municipal codes governing food truck operations, especially when it comes to public parking spaces.
"The code is clear, in that it is totally ambiguous," said Rick Onstott, Parking Director for EasyPark, the municipality's parking authority.
EasyPark enforces parking regulations inside the downtown business district, a swath of the city that includes everything between Gambell and N streets, and Ship Creek to 10th Avenue. But enforcement of street-side parking meters is stopped at 6 p.m. weekdays. It's free and mostly unmonitored during the weekends. So can a food truck operate from a downtown parking space, especially during times when the spots are free to use? The answer isn't easy.
There are several municipal codes that could potentially govern food trucks. In addition to requirements for a business license and a health certificate, operators must get a Roving Food Vendor permit. That gives them the right to sell food from their trucks within the municipality, but doesn't necessarily allow vendors to sell food on a city street.
The Municipal Right of Way Department handles permits for public events that could affect roadways. But what about using a metered public parking space to dish out food?
"Is it considered parking, or is it the sale of goods from a parking spot?" asked EasyPark's Onstott.
And then there are the questions about fairness. Property owners inside the downtown business district pay a premium in property taxes. Should the same standard be applied to mobile food trucks working within the area? And should a food truck be allowed to park in front of a downtown restaurant, potentially stealing its customers?
The working group assembled at City Hall on Thursday struggled to come to a consensus about the specifics of potential regulations. Food truck operators said they want the rules to be clear and fair.
"We just want it to be legal, and are concerned with what could potentially be put in a municipal ordinance," said Darrin Huycke, who owns a marketing business specializing in mobile food vending.
Food trucks are popular in many West Coast cities. Seattle is experimenting with using them to curb violence and fights, especially late at night, in downtown areas with a high bar density. Anchorage has seen a recent spate of fights and assaults in the downtown area at bar break -- the time when bars close and send hundreds of customers into the streets. Food trucks spread the masses out and give people something else to look at and do, rather than fight.
"Food trucks can curb bar-break violence," said Assembly attorney Julia Tucker.
Food trucks are also a great incubator of small business. Many brick-and-mortar restaurants -- eateries with a set building and location -- began as food trucks.
"We don't want to lose sight of the economic aspect," said Chris Schutte, executive director for the Anchorage Downtown Partnership, which promotes the area's businesses and manages the business district.
Some of the ideas being considered include:
• Creating "food truck pods" -- areas where mobile food vendors may park and sell their goods.
• Identifying public parking lots and street spaces that would not infringe on the businesses in the downtown area.
• Encouraging private businesses to make deals allowing food truck vendors to use their parking at times when the business is closed.
The working group will meet again in the next month to make recommendations to the Anchorage Assembly to clarify the rules for food trucks.
"We want to find a way to allow food trucks to operate and at the same time be fair to people who invested their money in brick-and-mortar businesses," said Assemblyman Dick Traini.
Contact Sean Doogan at sean(at)alaskadispatch.com