Food trucks at the beach

Wellington Beach one step closer to instigating pilot project

Food trucks may become a familiar sight at Wellington Beach this summer as council voted to pass a temporary use bylaw at last Wednesday’s planning council meeting. The pilot project will allow mobile restaurants to occupy Wellington Beach for a two-year period, with a proposed end date of May 31, 2023. The municipally-owned Wellington Beach is presently zoned Open Space (OS), which does not allow for mobile restaurants and the like. The temporary use zoning bylaw designation of Special Open Space (OS-35) will allow for food trucks for the duration of the pilot project. Wellington councillor Mike Harper noted that the passing of the temporary use zoning bylaw simply allows the idea to happen. “The motion is to allow for the possibility of,” added Councillor Phil St-Jean. “Allowing them to be permitted is not the same as allowing them to go in there; these are two separate issues.”

Municipal planning consultant Cristal Laanstra said, “In terms of these recreational parkland uses, a lot of them often have these secondary accessory uses that make them a more wholesome experience and to help with things like washroom buildings or the provision of food and beverages, and that is essentially what this is looking to do.” She said they have specifically looked at keeping it a short timeline to be able to assess what impacts there might be. “Although the pilot is expected to last one year, staff have listed to use for two years to build flexibility into the bylaw to accommodate any extensions of the pilot due to closures/lockdowns that may occur due to COVID,” stated Laanstra’s report. “Following the outcome of the pilot project, it will be determined whether a more permanent amendment to the bylaws will occur.”

Natalie Wollenberg, owner of 555 Brewing Co. and Jackson’s Falls Country Inn addressed council with concerns over the change to the food truck bylaw. “The advertising for an RFP [request for proposal] by the community development team during a lockdown, and before being approved by planning, was in poor taste,” said Wollenberg, noting there are many businesses struggling for survival. “The call to attention by this municipal team to the community and beyond was incredibly premature.” Wollenberg represents several local restaurants who have concerns about the bylaw change. She said they were advised by the municipality that local restaurants and vendors will have some consultation prior to going to planning, since it will have a direct impact on local business. “To see a call out for RFPs, that doesn’t seem like a consultation,” she said.

Wollenberg suggested putting a refreshment station at the Wellington Beach, possibly a community- based refreshment stand. “The County should investigate and put stipulations in place that protects the current local hospitality operators,” explained Wollenberg. “This includes not having food services that impede on what local establishments in the area currently offer.” She says the types of products on offer should include beverages, ice cream and basic snacks, items that would ensure a high turnover of customers, reduce line-ups and reduce the amount of people congregating around vehicles, given we are still in a pandemic. “Generally, beach goers will leave the beach in search for lunch,” she says. “By including certain genres of food trucks, the search for the local restaurant over lunch will dramatically decrease.” She says over the last 14 months, the local hospitality industry has taken a brutal hit. “Our income is directly affected by visitors visiting a tourist area, and if there are no stipulations put in place by the County about the choice of food and drinks available at Wellington Beach, this will have a direct impact on our foot traffic, reducing daytime business, and tourists will be staying longer at the beach.”

Wollenberg said there needs to be a ceiling limit on the amount of vehicles that it is being offered to. “This RFP is basically a call-out to outside businesses to come in and is a massive kick in the teeth to local business owners who are currently unable to operate properly.” She suggests there should be a callout to current local businesses to see if there is any interest in them pivoting or being able to provide a service first. “This was an example of pure disregard,” added Wollenberg. She also spoke to the leasing fees of the RFP which are between $1,000 and $1,500 for the season, something she states offsets the cost to the County. “Has there been a projected cost for the food truck that requires both hydro and water, and the cost of additional garbage around Wellington beach? Has there been a costing completed on the labour required to do this? Even if it’s four hours a day for one person, not including travel time, to access the dump for the entire season, the management of that area, the management of that staff, this equates to just under $10,000 and this is for a food truck to come and capitalize on Wellington Beach.” Further, she notes local businesses are paying $4,000 a month for rent, and that doesn’t include utilities.

“We aren’t against food trucks, but we are against the impact it will have on current local businesses without stipulations and forethought and planning, and consultation with current local businesses and the local hospitality industry which it will affect,” explains Wollenberg. She was also concerned about the environmental impact on rubbish on Wellington Beach coming at the expense of local residents. “Introduce food trucks, regardless of whether they use disposable products, regardless of whether they are environmental or not, it still needs to be collected,” she says. “Has the cost of labour, their vehicles, the disposal of the rubbish been quoted? Is this at the cost of the food truck or the County?”

Councillor Janice Maynard noted food vendors or food canteens are not something new in parks. “Many of our parks, some still do, had canteen buildings or had food services in them so this is not something new,” Maynard said. Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson said conceptually, he was not opposed to food services being available at Wellington Beach. “I think there are many reasons to explore this,” he said. However, he was more concerned about offering food services a month from now all while in the midst of an escalating pandemic in the province. “There are all kinds of uncertainties where we are right now; we don’t know what kind of summer we are going to have, we don’t know what kind of infection rate we are going to be seeing, that’s why I am erring on the side of caution,” said Ferguson. “I would prefer that this be explored for implementation in the summer of 2022, and I am really concerned about this moving forward too quickly in the health crisis we are very much involved in.”