Food truck proposal off the table

Hipster-hunting food truck drivers won't have to tiptoe around Las Vegas restaurants, at least for now.

The Las Vegas City Council couldn't agree on a proposal some said would have protected restaurants from unfair competition from food trucks by establishing a buffer zone around the restaurants.

The council on Wednesday failed to pass proposals for buffer zones of 150 feet and 300 feet and decided to table the issue.

"What it turned out to be, you know, I guess you could consider it a waste of time," Fuku Burger food truck owner Colin Fukunaga said of the debate that lasted more than an hour and ended up changing nothing.

The council's votes were the culmination of a debate that has been raging for months in City Hall, online and in the streets of Las Vegas.

On one side are restaurants contending that food trucks are swooping in and poaching business. On the other are those who say that the trucks are a welcome addition to the food scene and that businesses, mobile or otherwise, should accept a competitive environment.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman sought to broker a truce by convening a series of meetings aimed at creating rules both sides could agree on, including the formation of a buffer zone that would keep trucks from getting too close to restaurants.

"The idea was to get both groups represented, get into a dialogue, not fight about it," she said before the votes.

The compromise never arrived. While some food truck and restaurant owners attended stakeholders meetings and some agreed on a 150-foot zone, city officials moved forward with their own ideas.

In March, the Planning Commission voted in favor of an ordinance that included a 1,320-foot buffer zone, which outraged food truck owners who said it would all but prohibit them from opening up shop on public streets downtown.

That proposal faded, and the 150-foot proposal re-emerged, this time at a recommending committee meeting last month. But after hearing contradictory testimony and engaging in its own debate, the committee agreed to a 300-foot proposal it sent to the council.

During the meeting, Goodman said she could have done a better job moving the proposal through the process, particularly when it came to keeping other council members up to speed on what she thought was an emerging consensus of 150 feet.

"I will take the heat," she said. "I did not disseminate the information."

Whether better legislating from the mayor would have resulted in an ordinance is unclear, as the divide between the two sides of the debate was deep.

Restaurant owners who argued for a buffer portrayed it as an issue of life and death for their businesses.

"The food trucks, they just camp, take and leave," said Pablo Silva, a partner in El Gaucho Luca's Cafe. "We have to pay everybody, and pay bills and pay to keep the doors open."

The owner of a Roberto's Taco Shop complained that nearby food trucks were driving him out of business, although it is unclear whether a buffer zone would have helped him because it wouldn't have stopped the trucks from parking on private property.

Food truck owners and their supporters are just as adamant that they've done nothing to hurt restaurants and should receive credit for helping downtown by attracting legions of followers to the area.

"We are not trying to imitate what (restaurants) do," said Lisa Popovsky of the Roamin' Dough truck. "They have advantages we do not have: They have air conditioning and bathrooms and tables and chairs."

Council members also took sides on the issue.

Ward 6 Councilman Steve Ross made a motion to strike the item from the agenda altogether, saying the city's attempt to legislate the issue was misguided.

"It is hard for me, for our local government, to interfere with that free market, that free enterprise," Ross said. "Sometimes we get restrictive when we are trying to help."

Ward 3 Councilman Bob Coffin, however, said he thought a buffer zone was appropriate. Coffin, who voted with Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Barlow and Ward 1 Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian for a 300-foot zone, which didn't pass, said the city had a duty to help the restaurant owners.

"They are just going in there and they are just taking the cream off the top," Coffin said of the trucks.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285 .