Diners will soon have more options in Okotoks’ downtown core.
Town council unanimously approved amendments to its business licence bylaw to allow for mobile vending units, like food trucks, to be hosted by local businesses.
“It was awesome for it to go that way,” said Lisa Watts, co-owner of Hub Town Brewing. "It's always hard to tell and you don't know for sure who's going to be on-board with what.
"I think now we've got so much momentum in town with businesses wanting things to be changed in a certain way and the Town wanting to change the way things have always been."
The Town’s business licence bylaw now permits food trucks at markets, trade shows and with special event licences (as before) but also states host businesses can authorize mobile vendors to operate on-site so long as both parties have a valid Town of Okotoks business licence and the food truck provides a direct benefit to the host business.
Watts said having mobile vendors outside Hub Town will definitely improve its viability.
When she and her husband applied for their business loans, their funding was approved for the brewery but not for any restaurant or kitchen facility, she said.
“We were restricted from opening up a restaurant portion of the brewery,” said Watts during the council meeting.
Not being able to provide food within their establishment, they decided to partner with local restaurants to offer their customers something to eat. They hoped to include locally-run food trucks and other vendors to their menu and were thrilled to see the Town approve mobile vending.
“We still work with the local restaurants here in town quite a bit,” said Watts. “We do a lot of collaboration, and we plan to keep doing that. But this is something we feel is important for our business as well.”
The Town ran a pilot project with Hub Town to see how the mobile vending would work. They brought out locally-owned Smokeshow BBQ, and Watts said the results for surrounding businesses were unexpected.
"We had so many people come out that Grand Central, the pub and restaurant beside us, saw a huge influx of people in the same night we had the food truck," said Watts. "They didn't know that was happening, all they knew was they had this incredibly busy night they hadn't anticipated."
James Parker, who co-owns Smokeshow BBQ, attended the Oct. 15 council meeting to implore the Town to permit food trucks to operate outside of special events.
He said they can add to the vitality of the business community by promoting healthy competition, and they won’t detract from other establishments.
“Okotoks has a lot of great restaurants, but food trucks don’t really threaten that,” said Parker. “It’s a different demographic, it’s a different interest.
“It’s not the people who are going to have their family of four sit-down dinner in a brick-and-mortar store, they’re people of convenience who are walking by, going home, out for a night like at Hub Town and they drank some beer and want some food.”
Angela Groeneveld, economic development manager for the Town of Okotoks, said the bylaw amendments are a step in the direction of reducing red tape for business owners in town. They will also add to the atmosphere of the community, she said.
“The bylaw will provide the opportunity for increases in business activity, foot traffic, and ultimately in business revenues,” said Groeneveld.
She said the amendments will allow food trucks to operate in Okotoks while the Town works to develop a specific mobile vending unit bylaw to determine guidelines for the small businesses.
The Town will also play a role in connecting host businesses with local food trucks, she said.
“We would have a list, and we will also call our local stakeholders like the Chamber of Commerce, Olde Towne Okotoks, and say, ‘Who would like to be available…who do we have that is local?’” said Groeneveld.
There could also be an opportunity for established restaurants to begin running pop-up locations around town, she said.
Coun. Tanya Thorn said she was pleased to see movement on the mobile vending front this fall. It seemed like the right time to address it, she said.
The issue has come before council before, most recently in February 2018, but it was never seen as having high enough demand in Okotoks, she said.
“This has been on council’s radar and we just decided this wasn’t the time and place for it yet,” said Thorn. “So I’m grateful to see it here, now that it makes sense for our community.”
