Despite having a mobile concession, Cathy and Artemio Barraza didn’t expect to be as mobile as they have been this summer – a result of complications relating to municipal works and regulations.
The Barrazas can be found in the Eagle River Secondary parking lot, serving up fresh, authentic tacos, quesadillas and other delights from their mobile concession stand, Mexican Food & More. Business, they say, could be better, and not just because of poor weather the area had been experiencing until recently.
Cathy and Artemio’s business licence says the concession is to be located at Main Street Landing. That was the location the taco stand was assigned to when the Barrazas began their mobile venture the year prior. And that’s where they expected to be this year when they paid the $305 to renew their licence.
“Originally, when I got my business licence in January, it said Main Street Landing which is where I was last summer,” says Cathy, nothing business was promising at that location. “I based my whole business plan on being at Main Street Landing, and I’ve been everywhere except Main Street Landing.”
Part of what’s keeping the Barrazas out of Main Street Landing are new municipal works stanchions, that have effectively blocked their concession from entering.
The district’s business license bylaw is the other problem. For starters, there’s the technicality of Main Street Landing being a road right of way and not a park. Despite the Barrazas being assigned Main Street Landing, the bylaw states that mobile concessions “will be on public park property and not designated for parking and only adjacent to public walkways.” The other issue is that a mobile concession cannot be within 30 metres of a stationary business selling similar goods. The Barazza’s say that in their first year at Main Street Landing they acquired a letter of permission from the owner of a nearby restaurant. This year they did not get permission. The Barraza’s say this has to do with where they were told to set up after learning the Main Street Landing location wouldn’t work.
“They complained when they put us in the last parking stall, that was the first location they offered us, the last parking stall at the traffic circle…,” says Cathy and Artemio, both sympathetic with the owner of the existing business. “They wanted to move us onto Young Crescent, right along the support wall there. First of all, that would have put people up taller than my window, I wouldn’t have been able to have opened it. That becomes a traffic hazard for anybody coming around Young.”
The Barrazas submitted a letter to the district, asking that the bylaw be amended to allow mobile food vendors/concession stands with all necessary public heath documents and insurance to operate on public or private property. The letter was addressed at a council committee of the whole meeting last month. At that meeting, district administrator Alan Harris said that staff had gone out of its way to accommodate the Barrazas, but because of the bylaw, the taco stand cannot return to Main Street Landing.
“Last year the Channel House gave her approval to sell there because she was within 30-metres. This year they said no. That is the reason she is not there,” said Harris. “It is not the fact that there is some barricades as they call them… the specific reason she’s not there is that council has adopted a bylaw, and it’s council that has adopted a bylaw, not staff that has adopted a bylaw, such that they have to get approval by the property owners or businesses in a location.”
Mayor Malcolm MacLeod questioned the fairness of mobile concession owners having to pay only $305 to locate in a prime part of town.
“If you were to buy a piece of property close to a premium location like Main Street Landing, you’d pay probably a minimum of $300,000 to set up your business,” said MacLeod. “The interest on $300,000, just the interest, is over $1,000 a month… This vendor here, last year, was able to only pay $305 for the year to be in one of the best locations in town for business. There’s something that’s not quite right about that.”
Coun. Charlotte Hutchinson argued that the district doesn’t have the job opportunities to be in a position to limit mobile vendors/concessions and where they can go.
Council agreed the bylaw needed to be amended, and brought it back to the July 27 committee of the whole meeting for further discussion. And while council agreed to amend the fee structure related to a temporary festival business licence, nothing was done to address the Barrazas’ situation. MacLeod did say that he supported the 30-metre restriction of the bylaw.
Meanwhile, business remains slow at the taco stand.
“When kids make mistakes, you give them a chance to fix it, and I’ve been giving them a chance all along to fix their mistake,” says Cathy. “And I’m not very satisfied, and nobody has spoken to us since we sent the letter.”
