On June 27, 2011, The Asheville Independent Restaurant Association hosted Warren Hansen from Madison, WI, who oversees that city’s mobile vending program. AIR invited members of city council, the county commissioners, the mayor, Asheville Downtown Association, Asheville Downtown Commission, the board of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, members of AIR, and members of our local food vendor community.

With an acknowledgement that Asheville and Madison are different cities, with different lay-out and different needs, Hansen walked the group through the various details his offices take into consideration regarding food vendors, their operations, their presentation and enforcement, and their oversight. AIR is grateful to the city of Madison for sharing their knowledge with us and we believe Mr. Hansen’s presentation reinforces the need for careful planning and consideration in introducing this new food experience to Asheville.

We offer the following as our collective thoughts, suggestions and ideas:

• Enforcement is clearly an issue, acknowledged by the city planning department as something they are not equipped to do currently. Getting this piece right will be critical to the success of a mobile vending program, benefitting all concerned.

• We would like to offer the following as an idea: a pilot program for this effort, with a working committee (comprised by members of all invested parties, including city and county officials, downtown commission, vendor community, restaurant community, etc.) charged with developing parameters, benchmarks, areas of evaluation, number of permits issued, enforcement of regulations, accountability and measurement of success. Warren Hansen hinted at this when he suggested we start small – with four or five vendors – and see what works and what doesn’t.

• The Downtown Master Plan curates renovations to buildings and structures. The same bar needs to be raised for mobile vending.

• We support vendors using private property – assuring the same rules apply as with restaurants, including egress and access, landscaping, access to restrooms and safety.

• We would also support private plug-ins on private property to eliminate the hazards of propane or the amount of propane. The City Fire Department is very clear about propane restrictions and open flames in the CBD. Proper, safe electrical hook-ups followed by electrical cooking equipment could alleviate the propane and generator issues.

• The Fire Department needs to be involved in development of the ordinance.

• If there must be generators, they can be externally mounted but within the required decibel levels through inverter technology which carries very low decibel ratings.

• Permit fees should cover the cost of random inspections of mobile vendors.

• The idea of food carts is very appealing and eliminates lots of questions surrounding parking. We also like the idea of emphasizing consistency in size as well as creativity of presentation

• If food carts or trucks are self-contained and are not roaming, this minimizes the impact on the city’s trash pick-up as well as their enforcement.

• Assigned set up would eliminate challenges in enforcing regulations since inspectors would know where to look for the vendor.

• Madison has created a food vending community that offers a diverse array of culinary offerings, representing many different ethnicities and cultures – this would be a good fit in Asheville as well.

The Asheville Independent Restaurant Association hopes to play a role in collaborating with all concerned to ensure a viable, healthy food truck community is successful. We want to be a part of the process and believe we have demonstrated our commitment to finding proven best practices and making them work for our city.