Vancouver mayoral candidate promises to double number of food trucks

Vancouver mayoral candidate promises to double the number of food truck permits to 200

Food trucks parked on Howe Street at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Just over a decade ago, the City of Vancouver overhauled its food truck policy to enable a wider quality and quantity of food trucks and carts — beyond the average hot dog purveyor.

While it was clearly a success in the early years, critics have increasingly pointed out that the program has since been hindered by a lack of expansion and innovation, and this is also reflected by upward costs for consumers, with prices now comparable to or even exceeding brick-and-mortar, sit-down restaurants.

Generally, in recent years, food trucks have been driving away from the inherent concept of street food being low-cost.

Mayoral candidate Mark Marissen of the Progress Vancouver party says he is looking to change things up to make food truck businesses more competitive and viable.

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In a video posted by Marissen on his Twitter this week, he is promising reforms to the municipal government’s food truck regulations. This includes doubling the number of stationary permits, as there has been a years-long moratorium on increasing the number of permits.

He also wants to end the practice of the Engineering Department of the City of Vancouver regulating the food menu items served by these businesses. In fact, any changes to the menus must be approved by the Engineering Department and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

“What we need is more food trucks in our city and we simply don’t have enough. One of the reasons is they put them through all kinds of bureaucratic wrangling. In fact, there’s a limited number of permits, and if you want to change your menu, you need to get it approved by the Engineering department,” he said.

“I don’t know if the Engineering department should know what kind of food you should be serving, I think you as the consumer should know, and it’s up to the people who own the food trucks to decide what they are going to serve.”

The City of Vancouver told Daily Hive Urbanized that as of this week, there are 88 stationary permits under the limit of 100, with each permit provided with a designated location. There are also 73 roaming permits without a limit, with food trucks under this permit able to travel freely, but with general restrictions to adhere to.

Altogether, the municipal government currently has 153 issued licenses to operate a food truck.

“If I become the mayor, I would double the number of food trucks [by] doubling the number of permits allowing the food trucks, and get City Hall out of the way of micromanaging what you eat,” continued Marissen.

This means the number of stationary permits — the only type of food truck permit with a limit — would be doubled from 100 to 200.

The fees for stationary food trucks in 2022 are set at $58 for the application and $1,274 annually for the permit fee to sell food, plus tax. For roaming food trucks, the fee is set at $344 annually for a business in a motorized vehicle (traditional food trucks) and $172 annually for a non-motorized cart (bikes or push carts), plus tax.

The municipal government previously suggested the limit on the number of stationary permits is necessary to reduce competition amongst food truck businesses to the extent that it hurts their financial viability.

There has also been an outcry from brick-and-mortar restaurants that food trucks in close proximity to their premises hurt their businesses, and that food trucks have an unfair advantage with their comparatively lower operating costs.

But there are still some high costs beyond running just the food truck, such as rent and added operating costs for a commissary kitchen for preparing food in a VCH-approved brick-and-mortar facility, and metered parking fees if the food truck under the roaming permit is parked at a meter, although they are exempt from hourly parking limits.

Food trucks operating under the roaming permit also have location-based limitations. They are not permitted within the downtown Vancouver peninsula, and there is a cap of two food trucks in the Olympic Village at any given time, a cap of two along Terminal Avenue, a cap of two on Railway Street, and a cap of two in Spanish Banks.

But that is not all. Food trucks with roaming permits must stay at least 100 metres away from restaurants that sell a similar food product, concept, or theme. The rule was previously 60 metres up until 2014, in response to concerns expressed by the restaurant industry.

They also cannot be within one block of elementary and high schools on school days from 8 am to 5 pm, and public park boundaries (including parking lots and beaches) are forbidden, too. As well, food trucks under the roaming permit are banned from operating within 100 metres of the concession stands of the Vancouver Park Board.

According to a 2015 survey conducted by Vancity Credit Union, about 40% of food truck customers would not have gone to restaurants anyway, with 29% skipping the meal completely and 11% not eating at the food truck. The same survey also found that fast-food restaurants lose out to food trucks more often than full-service restaurants. When asked where they would have eaten if they did not eat at a food truck, 46% of respondents said a fast-food restaurant, while 15% said at a full-service restaurant.

For new stationary permits, the entire application intake process occurs each February, but the process is open only if there are locations available for the year. Otherwise, the next intake is the following year. City staff uses a scoring system to evaluate the applications for awarding new permits to stationary food truck businesses, with the top-scoring applicants issued with their permits on May 1.

The City’s resource guide for prospective food truck operators suggests applicants are weighed on the quality, appeal, concept, and uniqueness of their business plan and proposed menu. Applicants are also asked about their ingredients, including whether they are made from scratch, whole/unprocessed/fresh, certified organic, and fair-trade sustainable harvested or free range. A nutritional write-up must also be completed, although the provision of healthy food options is not mandatory.

When the City of Vancouver first began expanding its food truck program more than a decade ago, it initially used a lottery system to select vendors, which attracted 400 applications for over 800 locations.

Contrast this to the policies of Portland, which is renowned for its vibrant and innovative food truck scene. While most major cities in Canada and United States have food truck policies that are closer to Vancouver’s regulations, Portland does not have any distancing restrictions on where food trucks can park and operate, and its municipal fees are relatively low.

But there are some compliance regulations through the local health authority overseeing Portland, including the need to inform them when the food truck’s location or menu changes. Commissary kitchens are only required if the food truck does not have a three-compartment sink or dishwasher. A warehouse is also required for food storage if there is not enough space to store equipment and food inside the food truck.

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