HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter from Boyd Berry To the Rexburg City Council.docxJuly 17, 2019
To the Rexburg City Council:
I am asking the City of Rexburg to consider some form of regulation relating to mobile food businesses in terms of density and proximity to brick and mortar restaurants.
I am Boyd Berry, the owner and manager of the DQ for 31 years. In light of the growth of mobile food vendors, I have some concerns for the future. My concerns do not focus on protection
from competition but on respect for facilities and esthetics. Mobile food vendors are becoming popular, both for customers with their specialty menus and for entrepreneurs. This business
model is minimal investment, great for someone just starting out with an idea and little money. It also offers flexibility in terms of location and operating schedules. They can position
themselves just about wherever and whenever with a land owner’s permission. They offer just the essentials for the customer: food or drink, or treat, maybe some seating, some form of
parking, and maybe a porta potty.
As owners of brick and mortar restaurants, we invest tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in buildings, parking lots, in-door seating with air conditioning, and bathrooms with flush
toilets. We operate year-round, and try to keep our grounds and buildings looking nice; it attracts customers. It enhances the value of the property. It makes the city of Rexburg
more beautiful.
Over the last several years I have observed a taco bus and a frozen dessert trailer, Kari Ann’s, rotate in and out of the lot just south of me. Nothing about this seemed unfair or inappropriate.
We all see how popular Kari Ann’s has become with regular lines of people forming in the summer months. This year there is a mobile food court next to my DQ with what seems like four
to 8 different mobile food vendors coming and going. Dave Thompson who has headed up this operation has tried to be very friendly, cordial, and wants to avoid conflicts. Still, I
am basically opposed to the idea of having 4 or 5 mobile food vendors 40 feet from my door, 20 feet from my drive-thru lane. I have heard that next year many more mobile food vendors
may locate in the lot south of the DQ, where Kari Ann’s and Padaria’s food trailers are located. The addition of these food trailers this year and the potential of additional trailers
for next year causes me concern.
To have invested money to make my store look nice and then be surrounded by trailers and tents of all sorts of design and make-up seems like a setting with no regulation, where regulation
would be appropriate. I offer facilities like bathrooms and air-conditioned seating, and organized, well-marked parking. Occasionally we find customers with other’s products in our
store. This is not a huge concern but it does happen. More often, other vendors customers will come to our store for free ice water; not a huge concern as they see our menu. I’m
surprised they can’t even get free water from the food trailers.
I have seen numerous times where customers have walked over from Kari Ann’s to our bathrooms, occupying them while both my customers and employees need to use them. In the early years
we had to ask Kari Ann’s to not use our trash dumpsters and then, not to have their employees use our bathrooms. They quickly responded to our requests. Customers are more difficult
to control. Do your wives and daughters really want to use a porta potty? No business wins customers by policing who can and can’t use the facilities. Up to this year, the situation
seemed tolerable and not worth fussing over. With this year’s addition and the potential for next year, I feel a need to point out these issues. The new mobile food court next to
the DQ has not had a lot of activity so far, so the use of facilities from their customers does not seem significant as yet. If they do get busy, and more vendors locate to the south,
I think the situation will be more than just irritating.
How would you feel if you built a nice, big, beautiful house with nice landscaping, and then had a dozen campers and trailers of various conditions come locate right next to the border
of your property and stay there for 6 months of the summer? They occasionally use your water, parking, and bathrooms. I know it’s private property these food vendors are located on,
but most towns, like this one, have all sorts of zoning rules about housing developments and business zoning. I am asking for some regulations relating to proximity and density of
mobile food vendors to brick and mortar restaurants.
I realize the city tries to support entrepreneurs. It’s been suggested that allowing the food trailers to sit wherever helps them to grow and eventually go to brick and mortar. I think
everybody can see they actually just get more trailers. It’s an attractive business model to have minimal investment and financial obligations, and flexible schedule and location options.
What we see in this city is mobile food vendors popping up everywhere possible.
I ask for regulation relating to proximity and density of mobile food vendors in relation to brick and mortar restaurants. I am asking for respect for our facilities and the esthetics
of our property and buildings.
Respectfully,
Boyd Berry
DQ Owner