Food truck gets final thumbs up
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Chalk up another win for the Key West food trucks.
The most recent round in what has become an insult-filled battle between truck owners and City Planner Don Craig was won recently by Cayo Mexican Cantina, formerly Yebo’s Island Grill, 629 Duval St. City Commissioners on Oct. 21 approved the final building plans for the food truck, ending a two year effort by owners Helene and Joel Dos Santos to keep their business open.
City officials have tried repeatedly to regulate the trucks, which include White Street Station at the corner of White and Truman streets, and Garbo’s Grill, 129 Simonton St. But Key West building officials have been stymied in their efforts to place restrictions on the truck owners, who successfully argued in court that since the trucks are licensed vehicles, the state motor vehicles division, not city building inspectors, oversees their operations. But a new set of strict regulations drawn up by the city planning department and sent to the planning board would put the city in charge.
Those new regulations will be discussed by the planning board at its next meeting on Nov. 20. In the meantime, Cayo has been given the go-ahead despite claims by the planning department that the Duval Street food truck is operating without the proper city permits.
“I’d like to respectively ask that you look through the personality conflicts that have existed through this particular process for this applicant and let Mr. and Mrs. Dos Santos pursue their dream and build this facility,” said Owen Trepanier, a local urban planner and development consultant who is working with Cayo and three other food truck owners.
Trepanier was responding to a planning department memo to city commissioners that said Dos Santos “used the ruse” of claiming the food truck was a motor vehicle, not a stationary, affixed structure that would come under the city’s regulations. However, Special Magistrate Judge Jeff Overby ruled in May that if the food trucks were properly licensed by the state motor vehicle department then they were governed by state, not local, guidelines.
Planning Board members are set to discuss a proposed set of stringent regulations proposed by the planning department staff and city attorneys. Those regulations, requiring limited operating hours, no placement within 100 feet of a licensed restaurant or food service facility, and requiring the trucks to move from their location every night, have drawn protests from several truck operators.
Once the planning board takes action on the proposed ordinance, it will go before the city commission for public input and final approval.
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I don’t understand why B.O.’s Fishwagon operated for years in several locations without all this nanny-nanny-boo-boo from the city. What’s the harm here? With all the spite and wrangling, one can’t help thinking that there’s may be some “bubba-ism” below the surface. Call me cynical but isn’t that how it always works? I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have a Washington bridge in Key West. If Mr. & Mrs. Dos Santos lived in your neighborhood, you may find yourself suddenly flooded with detoured traffic.