Matt Hansen says his vacant lot at the intersection of 100 West and 100 South in downtown Heber would be a good spot for a temporary food truck court.
Eventually, he wants to construct a multi-story, mixed-use building on the site, but in the meantime – about five years – he’s asking the city for permission to park up to eight food trucks there.
The proposal also includes a small parking lot, temporary restrooms and seating for diners.
Heber City’s Planning Commission considered a development agreement for Hansen’s idea at its meeting July 22.
City staff said the plan would require exceptions to Heber’s normal landscaping, lighting and parking standards. They said traffic impacts, stormwater, street improvements and accessibility are other concerns.
Civil engineer Mike Johnston asked the commission to consider being flexible with the application to promote creating more places for people to visit downtown.
“If they have to pay impact fees, or they have to do more than minimal ADA paving, it doesn’t make any sense financially – zero sense,” Johnston said. “And it’ll just sit there as an empty lot with dirt piles, unless you can come up with a better idea.”
Johnston, who’s also a city councilmember, said he will recuse himself if the plans come to the council for a vote.
He said he is not worried about traffic: he thinks most people go to food trucks spontaneously.
“They generally see it and stop, or they walk over there for lunch,” he said. “It’s same-trip traffic. It’s already going somewhere, and they just stop and grab something from the food truck.”
He compared the proposal to a large food truck court in downtown Moab.
But some neighbors near the site are less enthusiastic about the idea.
Karl Merryweather said his family opposes the proposal because they don’t want portable restrooms and a dumpster right next to their laundromat. He said he also worries about noise and people using his land.
“Even from the farmers market, we get people that park in our parking lot,” he said. “We have to throw signs up. We’re constantly telling them, hey, this is for our own business. And we get very rude comments.”
Shelley Ryan, who owns Chick’s Café on Main Street, worried the food trucks would negatively affect her restaurant.
“Well, it’s just like the park,” she said. “They all come to Chick’s to pee – don’t buy a thing. They’re going to do the same thing. You guys are just doing a line of bulls---.”
Other residents had questions or concerns about late-night noise, pests from food trash, pedestrian access and more.
Planning commissioner Tori Broughton said she thought many of those issues could be addressed.
“I think that there are things that we can add to this development agreement that would really limit the negative impact that it would have on the surrounding neighbors,” she said.
She said the agreement would need a clear definition of “temporary” and requirements for curb and gutter improvements.
And Johnston proposed reassessing the agreement after two years to address any issues that might arise.
After the discussion, the planning commission still had some hesitations. Commissioners asked planning staff to revise the draft development agreement. They plan to revisit the food truck proposal at a meeting in August.
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