Eastern Iowa food trucks get organized

When Kyle Sieck turned his farmers market burrito stand business into the Local Burrito food truck three years ago, the Corridor's food truck scene was sparse.

He was only aware of two others at the time - Ladora-based the Box Lunch and Cedar Rapids-based Keepin' Up With the Jones's. It was hard, he said, for new trucks to break into the downtown Iowa City market.

'At that time, there was just a full out ban on food trucks. We were a fairly new thing,” he said.

That's partly what motivated him and the others to get organized. They formed the Iowa City Mobile Vending Association and have been pushing for more favorable food truck rules from the Iowa City Council ever since.

Now with about a dozen affiliate trucks, their efforts are slowly but surely paying off. In 2014, they worked with the city to create a pilot program to test allowing food trucks to park at Chauncey Swan Park, just east of downtown.

That didn't work well due to low foot traffic to the park, so last year they worked with the city on an ordinance allowing limited food truck participation in downtown Iowa City itself.

Now they are going back to the city council in hopes of a second pilot program next spring that would test expanding the hours they are allowed to operate to accommodate late-night diners and to expand where they are allowed to park.

'We like to stick together so we can accomplish things, so we can approach the city council,” said Diego Rivera, owner of Tacos Don Diego food truck. 'If we want to get anything done, to have our voice heard with the city, we realized they'll listen to a group more than just one or two people.”

As Iowa City code currently stands, the city offers six permits to operate on public streets downtown. Trucks must park at least 150 feet away from brick and mortar restaurants, cannot park in certain core downtown blocks with high restaurant concentration and can only operate between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Those regulations were created with input from the food truck owners but also from downtown brick-and-mortar restaurants, which have a powerful coalition of their own, the Iowa City Downtown District.

District Director Nancy Bird said her organization is concerned with protecting the business of brick-and-mortar venues that pay property taxes and have higher costs. They also are concerned about trash accumulation from trucks in front of businesses.

She said the district is willing to work with food trucks, but they are such new territory they are moving cautiously.

'I think a lot of Kyle, and he's done a lot for the mobile vending movement,” Bird said. 'We think a lot of that movement, we just want to make sure we protect the brick-and-mortar business that are paying a lot of money.”

Simon Andrew, assistant to the city manager, said the city is balancing those concerns with encouraging new entrepreneurs.

'We want to fairly treat all businesses in the community. Brick-and-mortars have made significant investments and have higher overhead costs. But we want to make sure we're also being mindful of fairly supporting new business models,” he said. 'All of these issues are things that can be worked out and other cities have worked out successfully.”

Having the food truck owners approach the city as a coalition, Andrew said, helped propel their message.

'I think that it's helpful to have some of the varying opinions within a group or industry be refined into a consensus before a proposal is brought to us. The input is more specific and concrete,” he said.

Getting organized

Food truck associations are a relatively new phenomena, but one that is growing across the nation. The National Food Truck Association, a national coalition of associations, formed in 2015 - the same year a group of truck owners in Des Moines formed the 'Legion of Food,” an organization that earlier this fall successfully lobbied the Des Moines City Council to expand the downtown zone where food trucks are allowed.

After recruiting more members through Science Thursdays, a weekly summer gathering of food trucks and activities sponsored by the University of Iowa on its medical campus, the Iowa City association built a website, icmobilevending.com. Sieck said not everyone is a dues-paying member yet, and about six or seven trucks form the most active core of the group.

The website lists a dozen trucks.

Some of the trucks are based in Cedar Rapids or elsewhere, and there is talk about changing the name to the Corridor Mobile Vending Association as they bring in more trucks and get more organized. So far, they've only advocated for policy in Iowa City, but that could change in the future.

Cedar Rapids introduced a mobile vendor ordinance earlier this year, which covers licensing, keeps vendors from operating within 100 feet of brick-and-mortar restaurants and prohibits operations between 2 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Those hours are closer to what the association would like to see in Iowa City.

They have been working with Iowa City staff on a proposal for a spring pilot program that would, among other things, allow for a certain number of trucks to have late-night hours and potentially expand the areas they are allowed to park. The details aren't set, but the measure likely will be on a council agenda in January.

If the measure passes, the city manager will be able to design the specific parameters of the pilot program.

Sieck himself doesn't hold a downtown Iowa City vendor license. Among catering, vending at events, setting up at the Iowa City Saturday farmers market and selling his burritos wholesale through local grocery stores, he said he has enough business to keep busy. But he still is glad to be part of the organization.

'My plate's pretty full. But I think Iowa City could benefit from some more street food. I'm interested in seeing the street-food opportunities expand,” he said.

He said he also would like the association to become a go-to source for information and for best-practices guidelines for new trucks - with advice on things such as how to maintain good relations with other businesses through trash removal and keeping noise to a minimum.

Flip ‘N Chop truck co-owner Tito Francisco said he's enjoyed being part of the association.

'We want to be able to present ourselves to the city as a community. It's how we can share ourselves with the community and appeal to the Downtown District,” he said. 'It's the street food culture that we want to show to them and help them embrace.”