FORT BRAGG, CA – An ordinance allowing food trucks and carts in Fort Bragg was sent back to staff for revisions, with council members seeking to fine tune rules to keep sidewalk and street side vendors from interfering with downtown traffic and existing businesses.

Council members decided that mobile vendors should be kept off Main Street (except for on private property) altogether, and considered the idea of setting up zones downtown where curbside and sidewalk trucks and carts would be allowed.

However, a mobile vending zone on North Franklin Street was questioned by one downtown business owner, who said it would create traffic problems, while she doubted that food trucks or carts would bring business to other downtown retailers.

Wendy Younger said she is not against mobile vendors, but asked the council to treat established businesses fairly when deciding how to let mobile vendors work in the city. Younger said she doesn’t like the idea of trucks and carts being concentrated on North Franklin St.

“I love the Farmers Market,” she said, “but it makes that part of Fort Bragg impassable.” Having North Franklin be a mobile vending zone, she said “would be like the Farmers Market every day.”

Younger also noted that the overhead costs of trucks and carts are much lower than for a business like hers (Zappa’s Coffee), and asked the council to make sure the same taxes and fees are applied to mobile vendors. She added that the corner lot on North Main Street just north of Cafe 1 would be an ideal spot for mobile vending.

Find the entire article at ukiahdailyjournal.com