Food trucks are coming to Saskatoon

“Food trucks will be permitted to operate in all areas of the city excluding locations in or adjacent to residential zoning districts, providing they meet certain restrictions, including 30 metres from a food service establishment, 30 metres from a primary or secondary school and 150 metres from a special event or festival,” said Kambeitz.

Under the policy and buffer-zone restrictions, no food trucks would be allowed in the Sutherland or Broadway BIDs.

“I would like to see a buffer zone that is less restrictive in order to allow highly pedestrianized areas in the city to be utilized by food truck owners,” said Coun. Mairin Loewen.

Councillors Loewen, Darren Hill and Charlie Clark opted to have a 10 meter buffer zone to allow food trucks on Broadway.

Coun. Clark also suggested city planners look at spots in Saskatoon, such as River Landing, as places where they can have several food trucks in one area.

Speaking to the committee, Laurel Beaumont, owner of Bus Stop Refreshments, said after the food truck open house in January, she took it upon herself to visit every food retail business in the downtown core. She told the committee that 100 per cent of those she talked to were against bringing food trucks in.

“By allowing this recommendation to be passed through council we would risk the potential of market saturation and this is good for no one,” Beaumont told the committee.

She also brought along with her a petition signed by 40 businesses downtown opposing this program. However, Kambeitz explained that because of the buffer restrictions, food trucks downtown would only be permitted in the north and south ends, not in the downtown core.

Beaumont added she doesn’t think the city of Saskatoon has a big enough population base to support more food services.

Atchison said because councillors wanted to make changes to the existing food truck policy for Saskatoon, changing the buffer zone being a major issue, he suggested the committee throw this back to the administration to tweak the policy, and consult with the different BIDs to see where they stand on these policy changes.

To operate in city streets where there are parking meters, food truck operators will have to put parking meter hoods, which costs about $2,300 for six months. And once there, the trucks can only stick around for five hours, under the regulations. Councillors also asked the administration to find out if these food trucks pay any fees on top of the parking meter fees.

The administration is expected to report back to the planning and operations committee between two to four weeks, before coming before council.

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by François Biber

Food trucks are coming to Saskatoon

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