Street-food fight tossed into Seattle council's lap

This is Freddy Rivas Jr.'s fear: A food truck parks 50 feet down the street from his Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, offering essentially the same menu.

Except the competition doesn't have to pay rent or property taxes. The food's cheaper. Rivas' business suffers.

A change to regulations would let food trucks set up shop on streets — instead of just on private lots — and could result in an explosion of food trucks in Seattle. The City Council is to discuss and possibly vote on the issue Monday.

Rivas, an outspoken opponent of the proposal, is well-suited to appreciate the complexity of the issue as the owner of both a food truck and a restaurant.

"Is this necessary? Is this something that the community needs? I would say the answer is no," said Rivas, who owns Rancho Bravo Tacos, both the food truck on Northeast 45th Street in Wallingford and the restaurant in a former KFC building on Capitol Hill.

While Seattle has long had an established taco-truck scene, food trucks offering more varied fare, like Skillet and Marination Mobile, have opened only in the past few years, said Diane Skwiercz, owner of Street Treats, a food truck that sells homemade desserts. There are about 20 of this new brand of food truck in Seattle, she said.

Councilmember Sally Clark, who introduced the proposal, said she wanted to expand the street-food scene.

"I wanted to review it because I am personally a little bit of a fan of street food. I think it provides for a little more variety on the sidewalk," Clark said.

The proposal would make it legal for food trucks to park on a street and sell food from that location, though not in residential neighborhoods, near high schools or within 50 feet of an existing food business. The new law would charge a parking fee of $2.25 per hour for four-hour time slots, amounting to $9 per day.

Under current law, food-truck owners can set up only on private lots. In most cases, they pay rent to the land owner.

For example, at Starbucks headquarters in Sodo, the company is remodeling its cafeteria and has invited food trucks to sell from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of its building, charging $50 a day in rent.

If the new rules are approved, a slew of new trucks might start selling around the city, but current truck owners say they, too, would take advantage of expanded vending locations.

Fewer than a handful of empty lots make for viable food-truck locations, said Veronica Weaver, owner of Charlie's Buns 'N Stuff, one of the food trucks at Starbucks this summer. If new spots opened, she would use them, she said.

But Rivas says the legislation would give food trucks on streets an unfair advantage.

Street parking would become valuable real estate, he said, with artificially low costs, effectively functioning as a government subsidy to street-food trucks.

In response to such concerns, the council already raised hourly parking fees — from 85 cents in an earlier draft to $2.25 in the current proposal — but Rivas wants more than that: He is pressing the council to auction street locations to the highest bidder. That would result in a fair market rate, he said.

At the council's land-use committee meeting last Wednesday, Clark said competitive bidding would favor people with deeper pockets over small entrepreneurs just starting out. Instead, the city plans to use a lottery system when more than one vendor seeks the same location and time.

Other restaurant owners are concerned that the council proposal would hurt existing small businesses just as the economy appears to be turning around. July was the first month in three years in which Mokas Café & Coffee Bar made a profit, said Lauren Darnell, a Mokas store manager.

Two weeks ago, food trucks moved onto a nearby lot. Mokas' daily lunchtime sales have been down about $100 since then, Darnell said.

Although those trucks are allowed under current city law, the proposal could add even more competition for cafes and restaurants.

Darnell said she would like the council to include a provision preventing food trucks from operating on the same block as an existing restaurant.

"I think street-food truck owners need to exercise some grace in how they do this," said Kamala Saxton, owner of Marination Mobile and Marination Station. "We, as a business, would not choose to open up or vend in front of an existing business, or even within 50 feet. That's not our model, and that's not how we operate."

Saxton also pointed out that as an owner of both a food truck and restaurant, she takes issue with the common claim that food-truck costs are substantially less. Since food trucks must have a separate commissary kitchen, the costs end up comparable, she said.

Skwiercz of Street Treats said opponents like Rivas are exaggerating the proposal's potential reach.

"It's going to be certain neighborhoods on certain blocks. It's not a free-for-all in the city," she said.

J.B. Wogan: 206-464-2206 or jwogan@seattletimes.com