The Winthrop Town Council isn’t inclined to change the town’s regulations on mobile food vending, council members indicated at their meeting last week.
The council briefly discussed the food truck issue, which has been raised before, in response a request from the Westernization Design Review Board (WDRB) to “re-evaluate” the existing ordinance related to mobile food vending.
The WDRB is currently considering possible changes to the town’s Westernization code, which regulates the appearance of downtown businesses in two zones. The WDRB is responsible for overseeing implementation of Westernization requirements, and reviews businesses for compliance.
Kyrie Jardin, co-owner of Methow Reservations and chair of the WDRB, told the council that mobile food vendors have frequently asked about how they could operate within the town while meeting Westernization appearance requirements. The challenging question, he said, is “how do you make a food truck Western?”
Jardin said many business owners who are required to meet strict Westernization codes don’t want to see food trucks downtown, especially if they are for some reason exempted from the codes. He asked the council members if they had any direction for the board. He suggested the town consider locations such as the Winthrop Barn parking lot or the Winthrop Rink’s lower lot.
Westernization applies
Mayor Sally Ranzau said the existing code allows food trucks to temporarily set up as part of events in town parks or on town-owned properties. The code also specifies several conditions that must be met for mobile food vendors.
“If they can’t be Western, they can’t be downtown,” Ranzau said.
Council member Bill McAdow appeared to reflect the sentiments of his colleagues on the council. “I’m not inclined to make changes,” he said. “We discussed this ad nauseum a couple of years ago.”
In July 2021, the council approved an “emergency request” to allow a food truck to park at one location, exempt from the Westernization ordinance, through Oct. 31 of that year provided it was moved every night.
As a practical matter, that emergency action applied to only one potential vendor: The Taco Bahia food truck owned by Dale and Monica Caulfield of Winthrop, who regularly park their truck at Mazama during the summers. They asked for permission to operate at Methow Valley Thriftway because their summer operations were compromised by wildfires and evacuation notices. In a letter to the town, the Caulfields had asked for the Westernization code exemption “due to the extreme emergency of the upper valley fires.”
In other business in a special meeting last week, the council heard an update from Tom Beckwith of Beckwith Consulting Group of La Conner, which has been hired to come with a Housing Action Plan for Winthrop, Twisp and the greater Methow Valley. The Beckwith study and anticipated recommendations are funded by a $50,000 state grant that is being shared by the two towns.
Beckwith has been conducting information-gathering sessions with local stakeholders including nonprofits, architects, builders, contractors and others with a stake in housing solutions for the valley, and collecting relevant data. Beckwith reviewed the firm’s findings to date, and said there will be public open houses in April to explain the study results and solicit feedback. Action recommendations are expected later this year.
