This week, three committee meetings experienced technical equipment issues which resulted in the meetings not being recorded. One of those meetings was the 12/06/2021 Municipal Services Committee meeting. I’m a little disappointed because I was looking forward to listening to the discussion about the proposed changes to the regulations surrounding Central Business District street vendors.
The changes as proposed would increase the number of available licenses from 4 to 8. As explained in the memo to the committee, “When this ordinance was originally developed, the demand for food trucks was not well-defined so we arbitrarily picked four (4) as a manageable number to start the program. This maximum has not created any challenges until this year. For the first time, all four permits are issued with several other food trucks also applying for CBD permits.
“If the number of permits is not increased, we will need a method to determine which of the applicants would be issued the limited number of permits.”
The proposed changes also called for the removal of the language in the current ordinance that reads, “No sales shall be made within fifteen (50) feel of the main entrance of any business selling same or similar products during the hours said business is open for the sale of said products, unless written permission is granted by said business and such documentation is placed on file with the Department of Public Works.”
Per the memo, “The City Attorney’s Office has concerns with this language as it is difficult to define ‘same or similar product’ so they are recommending that this language be deleted altogether.”
These changes were initially recommended for approval at the 11/08/2021 Municipal Services Committee meeting, but were then referred back to committee by Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) for further consideration. The committee then held it until the 12/06 meeting in order to give city staff enough time to conduct additional research.
I’m disappointed the meeting was not able to be recorded because based on the various motions it looks like there were concerns and possible dissatisfaction surrounding the initial proposed changes.
Alderperson Fenton moved, rather than removing the language as recommended by the Attorney’s Office, to amend it to read “No sales shall be made within fifty (50) feet of the main entrance of a licensed food establishment during the hours said business is open unless written permission is granted.”
[It seems to me that this amendment, if passed, would have eliminated the problem of having to define “same or similar products” by simply banning sales within 50 feet of the main entrance of any food establishment, but it also seems like it would have given preferential treatment to brick and mortar restaurants over food truck by creating a situation where a business person couldn’t sell food out of a food truck next to a restaurant but they could rent a space directly next door to that same restaurant and sell the same food they were selling out of the food truck with no issue. I would have liked to hear the discussion around that amendment.]
That amendment failed with Alderpersons Fenton and Joe Prohaska (District 14) voting in favor of it and Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Brad Firkus (District 3), and Chad Doran (District 15) voting against it.
Alderperson Siebers moved to hold the item until the next Municipal Services Committee meeting, but that motion failed with Alderpersons Siebers and Fenton voting for it and Alderpersons Firkus, Prohaska, and Doran voting against it.
Alderperson Prohaska then made a motion to change the number of permits from the 4 to 6 instead of the 8 as called for in the original recommendations. This motion failed for lack of a second.
The discussion seems to have been extensive enough that Alderperson Siebers eventually made a motion to call the question.
The committee then voted to approve the recommended changes as initially proposed with no amendment. This vote, however, was not unanimous with Alderpersons Siebers, Firkus, Prohaska, and Doran voting for approval and Alderperson Fenton voting against approval.
[Hopefully, the upcoming Common Council meeting on 12/15 will not have any technical issues because it’s possible this item will be pulled out for a separate vote, and I’d be interested in hearing that discussion.]
View meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=897667&GUID=4FAAC9EE-EBF6-4186-A40F-3E8EE26D51BF
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