Princeton tables proposed food truck ordinance, will look for further input among business owners

PRINCETON — After hearing feedback Monday night from a number of local brick and mortar restaurants and one mobile beverage vendor, Princeton City Council decided to table an ordinance regulating food trucks.

The reason? After hearing input, it became clear more communication between business owners and the city needs to be had before any ordinance goes up for vote.

Some businesses owners in attendance at Monday’s meeting said they had not been contacted by the city for input and a couple comments made by two city council members put it straight that Facebook is not the right platform to communicate the matter at hand.

Council member Ray Mabry urged that a face-to-face meeting be had between representatives of the city, restaurant owners and food truck vendors to hash out issues with the current proposed ordinance in order to make it “fair and equitable” for both restaurant owners and food/beverage truck vendors. He said while he appreciates food trucks and what they bring to the community, he also recognizes they can be a “detriment” to the brick and mortar businesses — especially those parked as close as 145-feet to a local restaurant competitor, which is currently happening in downtown Princeton and causing concern for restaurant owners already struggling with hardships brought on by the pandemic.

The idea for a face-to-face meeting was met by applause from the restaurant owners Monday evening. A date for this meeting is yet to be determined.

Council member Jerry Neumann also encourage people to email, call or drop off written letters at city hall for city council members to express their concerns or ideas on this matter going forward. Contacts for each city council member can be found on the city’s website, princeton-il.com.

Neumann said “using Facebook to communicate with us is totally the wrong way to go. Use email, use the telephone. That would be the best thing.”

Mayor Joel Quiram, who posted about the food truck ordinance on his mayor Facebook page last week sparking a lot of online feedback from the general public, was the one to suggest tabling the ordinance so that it could be worked on a little more before being brought back before the council. He said he appreciated everyone coming out and sharing their input. He said, “this is what this is all about. This isn’t trying to ram anything down anybody’s throats. This is something we put out and it has to be discussed.”

The proposed food and beverage food truck ordinance is quite lengthy — seven pages to be exact. Quiram said it was basically a copy of what the city of Ottawa recently approved and modified to fit Princeton.

Based on comments made Monday, it seems as if restaurant owners are willing to accept food trucks in town, they just want to be sure they’re not set up near competing businesses and they are paying their share in fees and sales tax.

Tim Vitale, owner of Pizza Cellar, admitted he didn’t know much about the proposed ordinance but hoped to find out more about it before it was passed by the city council.

He said allowing an influx of food trucks is not a good idea at this time for struggling restaurant owners.

“It’s been devastating. I’m three years behind from this,” he said, referring to the impact of the pandemic.

He said it’s one thing if food vendors come in and play it fair by paying sales tax and fees.

The proposed ordinance does enforce fees for food truck vendors and ensures all vendors are paying sales tax to the city. Quiram confirmed right now, some food vendors are and some are not. The proposed ordinance also limits where food truck vendors can set up and puts a limit on hours of when they can operate. Right now, vendors can set up wherever and stay all day if they want to. The proposed ordinance would limit vendors to areas where they would not be able to set up on Main Street in places taking up diagonal parking on Main Street or more than one parallel parking spot on Main Street or directly in front of competing businesses.

However, Keith Brown, owner of Skoonerz, pointed out that the current ordinance is not fair for the north-end of town vs. the south-end. He said food vendors are more limited on the south end because of the diagonal parking on that end of town vs. the parallel parking on the north end.

Todd Poruba, owner of the Ye Olde Underground Inn, said the talk years ago used to be about “Main Street first” and food trucks are taking away from Main Street businesses.

He pointed out that if you looked at every brick and mortar restaurant in Princeton, it offers the same food, beverage and desserts being sold out of food trucks.

“We have every type of food available in Princeton so why allow them to jeopardize the businesses who are here 365 days a year?” he questioned.

Poruba said he was fine with food trucks being limited to private property or spaces off Main Street, but when it came to Main Street, Princeton needs to protect the business owners who pay property taxes, city water/sewer and employees.

Katlyn Sanden, owner of Cows Coffee, was the lone food/beverage vendor who spoke Monday.

She said she enjoys setting up and serving the people of Princeton. It was never her intention to take away from brick and mortars when she started. She urged that there could be a fair solution agreed upon that would support both brick and mortar restaurants and vendors and didn’t interfere with parking on Main Street.

Sanden said while having something in writing would help “negate the harassment vendors have endures” she questioned several regulations laid out in the proposed ordinance. Most of her questions were answered on the spot by Quiram, however one of her concerns stems from the regulation of not being able to set up in town during the annual Homestead Festival. This was proposed by the Homestead Festival Steering Committee with intentions that it would avoid competition between service groups hosting cookout fundraisers. Sanden, however, said those same service groups are the ones that have invited her to set up in the past and both had great response from the partnership.

Mike McCall, a candidate for Princeton City Council in this week’s consolidated election, also spoke out about the ordinance. He said being in the restaurant industry, he’s familiar with the struggle restaurant owners are facing right now and will continue to face in the coming years. He said it’s bad timing to pass an ordinance related to food trucks at this time. He pointed out this ordinance will push food vendors to the north end of town, potentially hurting restaurants on that side and the best practice would be to only allow vendors on private property or in city parks where they would not be in direct competition with business owners on Main Street. Another big concern for McCall is that after speaking with several restaurant owners in town about the ordinance, he discovered not many knew much about it and urged that more owners be aware of what it will entail before it goes up for a vote.